Umar Ajiya, chief financial officer (CFO) of Nigerian National Petroleum (NNPC) at the 2023 CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas, US. Credit: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has revealed that it is open to selling assets soon to help enhance profit margins and achieve greater returns. 

During an interview with local news outlet CNBC Africa, NNPC CFO Umar Ajiya revealed that the company aims to maximise the use of its assets and possibly sell those that cannot be optimised.  

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NNPC recorded N14trn ($8.8m) from crude oil sales in 2023, a significant increase from the N3.5trn generated in the previous year. Its total assets also grew to N246.8trn from N58.5trn in 2022.  

“We are going to sweat the assets [and] will also sell assets we think we cannot sweat ourselves. That way, we will rebalance the balance sheet so that the assets are maxed out,” Ajiya said, as reported by another local news service.  

Ajiya also mentioned that the oil company is ready to go public, subject to shareholders’ interest in investing. He highlighted that the Petroleum Industry Act suggests a financial track record of two to three years to assure investors that the national energy company is heading towards profitability. 

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Local business and financial news outlet Nairametrics reported that despite the national oil company’s record 28% profit surge to N3.2trn in 2023, compared with 2022, several analysts believe NNPC has yet to fully realise its asset potential.  

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Ajiya added: “To go to the public is basically a shareholder’s decision. We are almost there in the sense that we have at least two or three years of financial history to demonstrate to the investors that the company is on a profitable trajectory.”