President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday approved the immediate unbundling of
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, into seven independent
operational units.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, announced the
split of the state-owned oil company in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on
Tuesday.
The new units are Upstream, Downstream, Gas & Power, Refineries, Ventures,
Corporate Planning & Services and Finance & Accounts.
With the announcement of this new policy road map, the realigned NNPC
comprises of five business-focused and two service driven units.
The chief executives of the new units are: Bello Rabiu (Upstream); Sa’idu
Mohammed (Gas and Power); (Anibor Kragha) Refining; Henry Ikem-Obih
(Downstream); Babatunde Victor Adeniran (Ventures).
Others are Isiaka Abdulrazaq (Finance & Accounts) and Isa Inuwa (Corporate
Planning & Services).
The new NNPC design is based on ‘FACT’ organisation which is Focused,
Accountable, Competitive and Transparent.
According to NNPC, “the organizational realignment is not about staff
layoffs, but about placing the right people in the right places to do the
right thing”.
NNPC also announced a remarkable decrease in its operating deficits. “Our
January 2016 Financial and Operations report showed our monthly operating
deficits reduce from average of N30bn in August 15 to N3bn in January 16.
“This is a remarkable decrease of 900% which could only have been achieved
by the collective effort of the entire team at NNPC,” it said.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has condemned the unbundling of
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, by the Minister of
State for Petroleum and Group Managing Director of the corporation, Dr.
Ibe Kachikwu, without following the constitutional process.
It said instead of embarking on an unconstitutional journey, the President
should send an executive bill to the National Assembly as soon as possible
to unbundle NNPC or carry out fundamental restructuring or reforms in the
oil and gas sector and not for the minister to usurp its functions.
The House, presided over by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, mandated the
Committees on Petroleum Upstream, Petroleum Downstream, Gas and Local
Content and Legislative Compliance to ensure that the Minister of State
for Petroleum and GMD was prevented from usurping the functions of the
National Assembly and desecrating the Constitution of Nigeria by not
allowing him legislate for the National Assembly in the unbundling of
NNPC.