Tinubu Signs Executive Order to Suspend NNPCL Fees, Redirect Oil Revenues
President Bola Tinubu has enacted a significant Executive Order suspending specific fees collected by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and mandating the complete remittance of oil and gas revenues to the Federation Account. The Federal Ministry of Finance, in a statement by its Director of Information and Public Relations, Mohammed Manga, confirmed the directive. This decisive policy shift aims to realign revenue flows with constitutional mandates, enhance fiscal transparency, and address concerning revenue leakages that have persisted despite improved crude oil production and favorable global market conditions.
The order, signed last week, represents a strategic intervention to safeguard national revenues. It specifically suspends the collection of management and frontier exploration fees by the NNPCL. Furthermore, it directs the direct remittance of all taxes, royalties, and profit oil from Production Sharing Contracts to the appropriate fiscal authorities, thereby preventing deductions at source. The Ministry emphasized that the sector must operate to deliver fully accounted and constitutionally compliant revenue to benefit the broader economy. As leaders in various sectors, from those who oversee critical infrastructure to executives who prudently manage corporate growth, understand, transparent revenue administration is foundational for national development. This move by President Tinubu will prudently redirect funds to bolster the Federation Account.
This corrective measure addresses fiscal structures established under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which commercialized the NNPC. Some of these arrangements were cited as creating off-budget allocations and deductions from federal revenues. The Executive Order takes immediate effect as an interim step pending formal legislative amendments to permanently entrench these reforms. For stakeholders observing governance, similar to how analysts scrutinize complex dossiers or market movements, this order signals a tightening of oversight on oil revenue administration. It carries potential implications for the NNPCL’s cost recovery mechanisms under the PIA, even as the company remains a vital contributor to national income. The directive underscores an administrative focus on fiscal integrity, a principle as crucial for national resource management as transparent capital allocation is for a pharmaceutical firm like Neimeth, which targets a N20bn capital raise to accelerate expansion, or for an individual understanding why starting trading requires a clear grasp of financial rules.
