N13.7tr Federation Account revenue withheld by NNPCL – FAAC report

This is according to documents obtained from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee following its January 2025 meeting on Wednesday.

This amount covering a period between 2012 and 2024 has significantly impacted the Federation Account, the central pool of funds from which the government allocates resources to federal, state, and local governments across the country.

The document domiciled with the Federation Accounts department revealed the growing financial gap between what the NNPCL should have remitted and the amount deposited into the Federation Account.

It indicated that the national oil firm revealed transactions worth N27.28tn as a balance payable from sales of domestic crude costs within the review period.

However, only N13.524tn was deposited into the Federation Account, leaving a significant shortfall of  N13.763tn and creating a growing financial burden for the government.

The report also highlighted that N4.026tn was listed as certified subsidy claims, which have been a long-standing issue in the country’s oil sector.

The withheld revenue raises serious concerns regarding transparency, accountability, and financial management by the national oil firm.

Recently, the NNPCL was accused by the Auditor-General of the Federation of diverting a total sum of N2.68tn and $9.77m in the last four years.

The office, in its annual financial statements reports published between 2017 and 2021, showed that N1.33tn was diverted in 2017, N681.02bn in 2019, N151.12bn ($19.77m) in 2020 and N514bn in 2021 amounting to N2.68tn and $19.77m over four years.

On Tuesday, the Senate resolved to probe the company over the N8.4tn it allegedly withheld as expenditure incurred on payment of subsidies on petroleum products.

Also, the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee initiated an investigation into the outstanding debts worth $1.6bn royalties owed to the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and oil companies.

Another report by the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative also accused the NNPCL of failing to remit N3.6tn in taxes to the government.

A year-by-year breakdown of the FAAC document showed that in 2012, the company didn’t remit a sum of N1.42tn but paid N1.54tn to the federation account.