public to private

How different is Nigeria’s new national oil company? And will we see an IPO?

By Temitayo Lawal

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Posted on August 31, 2022 09:33

The new logo of the privatised Nigeria oil company is seen at the NNPC Mega Gas Station in Abuja, Nigeria August 30, 2022. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Last month, President Buhari unveiled Nigeria’s rebranded national hydrocarbon company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC Limited). The transition of the government-controlled national oil company to a commercially-run entity was made possible by the signing of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in August 2021.

The PIA had been in the works for 20 years and now provides the legal, fiscal and regulatory framework for the petroleum industry.

The NNPC was incorporated as a limited liability company with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in September 2021 – fulfilling the mandate to be incorporated within six months of the PIA – and floated with N200bn ($475m) initial capital by the ministries of petroleum and finance.

The company’s operations and governance, like other private or commercial organisations, are now to be guided by the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), which was also signed into law in 2020. The transition is hoped to be a critical departure from the corporation’s bureaucratic, opaque and non-profitable past.

“It will unlock enormous value in our oil and gas sector for the benefit of the Nigerian economy and its citizens,” says Muda Yusuf, CEO of the Centre for the

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