NNPC admits owing federation account

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has admitted that it has not remitted the appropriate amount it generated to the country's federation account.

The Chairman of Nigeria's Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr Timothy Odah, said the corporation had admitted that it was owing the federation as being reported in the media.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had reported that the corporation had not remitted 49.8 billion dollars to the account in 2012 and 2013

Odah, who is the Commissioner for Finance in Ebonyi, announced the development in Abuja on Friday while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.

He said the NNPC representative at the meeting admitted that the petroleum corporation was indeed owing the federation as was being purported in the media.

He said, however, that the actual amount of indebtedness would be determined at the next FAAC meeting.

“The NNPC has admitted that truly, they owe the federation account and by that information, we referred the deliberation on the figure of what they say they owe to the next FAAC meeting.

“This is so that the technical committee will be able to examine NNPC accounts before we will be able to publicise or accept the figure they have quoted,” he said.

Odah described as ” important” NNPC’s acknowledgment of its indebtedness to the federation account, adding that it was a welcome development.

“You know previously it has always been a matter of controversy. They say they don’t owe and sometimes they will say that it is the federation account that owes them, but this time they have accepted that they owe.

“The difference between what we claim they owe and what they claim they owe is very marginal,” he said.

Odah also said the FAAC technical sub- committee would begin to work on measures to further scrutinise remittances by the NNPC and stop such occurrences in the future.