Chief Economic Strategist to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Prof Ken Ife, has valued the assets of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at N50 trillion.
The Professor of Economics stressed that the oil company can be listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
Speaking at a Growth Initiatives for Fiscal Transparency, (GIFT) dialogue held in Abuja on Wednesday, Prof Ife averred that the N50tn valuation included the crude, gas, landed and intangible assets of NNPC Ltd.
The reason for the valuation, according to the economic strategist is to ensure that all host communities, labour unions, oil marketers, citizens and corporates took part in the public quotation expected soon.
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Prof Ife notes that it is also the best way to reduce oil theft and opaque petrol subsidy being paid by the government.
He stressed that if every Nigerian, including militants and oil thieves have shares, it would become difficult for theft to continue at the scale it is currently being carried out.
With that, Prof Ife said, militants will not break pipelines when they are shareholders of the company. They will demand dividends, rather than break pipelines.
His words: “If militants break pipelines, they will not get dividends from the company in which they have shares. If Nigerians are shareholders, it then becomes their decision to maintain subsidy or remove it,”.
The Professor of Economics expressed regret that the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, had removed the NNPC from being subject to the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Public Procurement Act, saying that this was not healthy for accountability and transparency.
Prof Ife, who is also a consultant to the Central Bank of Nigeria, noted that PMS subsidy has reached a critical juncture where the government was now looking to borrow N4 trillion per year, when 50 modular refineries could be funded with just N2 trillion to refine 1 million barrels a day.