Finance Ministry, NNPCL Dispute Over $3bn Loan Issues

The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) faced off before the Senate Public Accounts Committee regarding unresolved financial queries from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) 2021–2023 Oil and Gas Sector Audit Report. The ministry, represented by Permanent Secretary Mr. Raymond Omachi, accused NNPCL of not providing essential financial records related to a $3 billion pre-export financing loan, $722.6 million in Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividends, and other expenditures.

NEITI's report questioned the unclear recovery of the loan and the unaccounted NLNG payments. Omachi stated that the ministry could not directly account for transactions managed by NNPCL and other agencies, which had not supplied necessary financial records.

To address these issues, the ministry engaged Arthur Andersen LLP for a forensic audit. However, the Senate committee expressed dissatisfaction with the timeline for the audit report, which had already been extended twice.