The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclaimed the insinuation that it has in its custody $3.5 billion Subsidy fund.
This comes as oil marketers in the country have asked the federal government to pay the arrears of N130.7 billion owed to them, covering a four year period.
According to a statement by the NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, release Wednesday in Abuja, the corporation explained that at the hit of the shortage of products supply at the close of 2017, the National Assembly asked the NNPC to do everything possible to stem the hiccups.
Ughamadu revealed that accordingly, NNPC initiated the move to raise a revolving fund of $1.05billion, since the corporation was, and still is, the sole importer and supplier of white products in the Nigeria.
Since inception, the NNPC spokesman said the fund had been domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying at no time was it in the custody of the NNPC.
Ughamadu said the fund, dubbed the National Fuel Support Fund, had been jointly managed by the NNPC, the CBN, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OGF), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF).
He clarified in the release that “NNPC did not independently spend a dime of the fund which was to ensure stability in the petroleum products supply in the country.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, the corporation is fully aware that it is only the National Assembly that has the statutory responsibility to appropriate on petroleum subsidy matters,” Mr Ughamadu added.
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