NNPC’s Missing $49.8 billion: CBN Stands By Its Allegation, Says President Jonathan Shares The Bank's "Concerns"

CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said today it would neither confirm nor deny a widely-circulated letter sent to President Goodluck Jonathan by its governor, in which he scandalously revealed that the Nigeria National Petroleum Resources has between 2012 and 2013 failed to remit nearly $50 billion into the Federation Account.  
In a press statement by the bank’s Director of Corporate Communications, Ugochukwu Okoroafor, the bank said it considered any discussion of the alleged letter to be inappropriate.
Despite that, the CBN, citing a “gathering momentum in the public space,” and the fact the matter seems to be assuming a highly-politicized dimension, offered 10 “clarifications.”  
Among them,  it stressed that in the performance of its  role, it is natural  for the CBN to be concerned  at the low level of accretion  to reserves and the Excess Crude Account, despite strong  international oil prices, especially as  Nigeria's   performance  is  compared   with  other   oil  producing economies.
This amounts to a reiteration of the bank governor’s reason for writing the letter to President Jonathan in the first place, and that  the NNPC stands guilty as charged.
The CBN also took the opportunity to restate its support of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).     
“The  Central   Bank   of  Nigeria   recognizes   that   there   is  an urgent need  to  review  fiscal  terms  of  sharing  revenues  between the  Federal Government and oil companies  and to  improve governance and transparency in the official  oil sector,” the statement said.  “This underscores the  need  to  urgently pass a Petroleum  Industry Bill (PIB)  that  addresses  fiscal  terms  and the  structure of the  NNPC. We therefore support the  effort of  the  Federal  Government to pass a new PIB.”
In the original story dated December 9, 2013, SaharaReporters reported that in the letter, which CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi  hand-delivered to President Jonathan in September, he lamented the continuing failure of the NNPC to honor its legal obligations to the country, including failure to remit $49.8 billion to the Federation Account between 2012 and 2013, representing 76% of the value of crude oil liftings during that period.
Read More From The Source...