The Federal Government, through the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, has extended the ongoing probe and reconciliation of payments made by revenue-generating agencies, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, to December 2024, following unresolved discrepancies in remittances.
This comes as the company has submitted its response on an alleged revenue under remittance of $42.37bn, an equivalent of N12.91tn, to the federation account between 2011 and 2017.
According to documents from the October 2025 meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee, obtained by The PUNCH on Sunday, the extension was approved after the sub-committee in charge of the monthly reconciliation meetings reported that several outstanding payments were yet to be fully reconciled.
“Members should note that the above outstanding amounts are still being reconciled at the monthly reconciliation meetings between the agencies and the sub-committee.
Furthermore, the outstanding payments from the Revenue Generating Agencies before June 2023 were referred to the Stakeholders Alignment Committee,” the document stated.
It was further revealed that outstanding payments by the agencies before June 2023 have been referred to the Stakeholders Alignment Committee for deeper scrutiny.
To ensure accurate reporting and eliminate discrepancies, the NNPCL has been mandated to provide its actual remittance figures to replace previously submitted estimates.
“Also, the second phase of the reconciliation extended the period to December 2024, and NNPCL was mandated to provide its actual figure to replace the estimates. The Sub-Committee awaits the outcome of the report of the Technical Reconciliation Committee meeting conveyed by the Ministry of Finance,” the document added.
The sub-committee also noted that it is awaiting the outcome of the report from the Technical Reconciliation Committee convened by the Federal Ministry of Finance to harmonise submissions from all relevant agencies.
The amount yet to be reconciled includes N1.02tn and $137.84m in unreconciled revenue from key revenue-generating agencies, including the NNPCL, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
A breakdown of the figures indicated that while no dollar remittance gap was recorded under the NNPCL category, the company and NUPRC jointly had N733.19bn outstanding. Another N296.25bn was attributed to discrepancies between the FIRS and NNPCL, while $69.03m and $68.02m were traced to unresolved balances involving FIRS, NNPCL, CBN, and NUPRC.
The extended probe follows months of revenue disputes between the NNPCL and government fiscal authorities over unremitted earnings.
The document also revealed that the government has begun reviewing the NNPCL response to allegations of under-remitting $42.37bn (about N12.9tn) to the Federation Account between 2011 and 2017.
The review follows findings by Periscope Consulting, a firm engaged by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, which had earlier accused the state oil company of withholding crude oil proceeds and other statutory revenues due to the Federation Account during the period.
According to the report titled “Update on NNPC’s Alleged Under Remittances to the Federation Account of $42,373,896,555.00”, the company had earlier requested a two-month grace period to respond to findings by Periscope Consulting, a firm engaged by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to investigate alleged revenue shortfalls between 2011 and 2017.
“During the Sub-Committee’s meeting, NNPCL reported that it had submitted its response on October 10, 2025, as requested. The ad hoc committee set up to examine the issue was mandated to study the submission and report back. This assignment is still a work in progress,” the FAAC document stated.
The situation has been compounded by NNPCL’s failure to remit any interim dividends into the Federation Account this year.
FAAC records show that the oil firm was expected to contribute N271.18bn monthly, translating to N2.17tn year-to-date, but no payments have been made so far, creating a significant shortfall in the government’s revenue projections.
The extended probe aligns with recent warnings from the World Bank, which accused NNPCL of failing to fully remit oil revenues to the Federation Account, thereby undermining fiscal transparency and macroeconomic stability.
The Bank noted that while the company was corporatised in 2021 to operate as a commercial entity, it still retains monopolistic control over crude oil sales and foreign exchange inflows, leading to persistent gaps between reported earnings and actual remittances.
“NNPCL has remained a key source of revenue leakages,” the World Bank stated, urging the government to “strengthen oversight, ensure full disclosure of oil proceeds, and improve transparency in federation revenue management.”
The institution said the state-owned company has only been remitting 50 per cent of revenue gains from the removal of the Premium Motor Spirit subsidy to the Federation Account.
It said out of the N1.1tn revenue from crude sales and other income in 2024, the NNPCL only remitted N600bn, leaving a deficit of N500bn unaccounted for.
“Despite the subsidy being fully removed in October 2024, NNPCL started transferring the revenue gains to the Federation only in January 2025. Since then, it has been remitting only 50 per cent of these gains, using the rest to offset past arrears,” the World Bank stated.
Since assuming office, the NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, has consistently pledged to entrench transparency, efficiency, and accountability in the company’s operations.
He has repeatedly assured Nigerians and the global investment community that the company’s books would be transparent and that its dealings with the Federation Account would be fully compliant with fiscal rules.
However, despite these assurances, legacy issues from previous years, particularly allegations of under-remittance running into tens of billions of dollars, continue to cloud the company’s transparency drive.
