Amid the continued foreign exchange crisis in Nigeria and the freefall of the Naira, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has moved crude oil sales revenue to the Central Bank of Nigeria from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in sweeping reforms in the oil and gas sector.
The Governor of the CBN, Olayemi Cardoso, last week, during a keynote address at the launch of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG, “2024 Macroeconomic Outlook Report,” said that the directive is part of collaborative efforts between the CBN and the Ministry of Finance.
He said: “This coordinated effort will greatly enhance the Bank’s foreign exchange flows and contribute to the accretion of reserves.”
Under the new arrangement, NNPCL will submit receipts for crude oil sales to CBN for vetting and documentation.
Sources familiar with the development said the reform would see receipts of payment for oil sales forwarded by NNPCL to the apex bank to boost transparency and accountability.
Over the years, NNPCL had maintained sole control over crude oil sales, only rendering accounts to the Federal Government.
In 2022, the NNPCL declared zero revenue remittance to the Federal Government.
The company had blamed fuel subsidies for non-remittance.
The former CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi, said NNPCL is responsible for the persistent forex crisis due to its opaque nature of managing revenue from crude oil sales in the country.
Consequently, the former Emir of Kano called for a company probe.
The development comes as the Naira crashed to N1,348.63 against the US Dollar at the official forex market and quoted at N1,450 at the parallel market on Monday.
