The recently released financial statement of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) detailing the expenditure status has revealed that a whooping sum of N357.098 billion was expended as staff salaries, wages and other benefits in 2019.
The statement explained that NNPC’s Emolument in 2019 was an increase of N14.74 billion or an appreciation of 4.3 per cent from N342.36 billion paid to the staff in 2018.
The N357.098 billion, if divided among the 6,621 staff of the NNPC, translates to an average salary of N53.93 million per employee in 2019.
The NNPC Group had disclosed that its staff strength, as at April 20, 2020, stood at 6,621, both at its headquarters and across all its subsidiaries, division and offices nationwide. The NNPC has 13 divisions and Strategic Business Units, SBU, nationwide.
Though the NNPC recruited 1,050 new employees, February 2020, a number of senior management staff of the NNPC were also disengaged earlier in the year.
In addition, the salary of NNPC’s staff is higher than Delta State’s 2020 budget of N282 billion; Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Sokoto’s budgets of N206.27 billion, N259.25 billion, N108.8 billion and N153 billion respectively; while the 2020 budget of Edo, Rivers and Abia states were N128.8 billion, N300.37 billion and N102.6 billion respectively.
The salary is also higher than the N127.36 billion, N131.74 billion and N152.77 billion earmarked for capital expenditure in the proposed 2021 budget for the Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Ministry of Health and Federal Ministry of Water Resources, respectively.
It is also higher than the N256.89 billion, N198.28 billion, N89.97 billion N64.84 billion and N10.19 billion budgeted for capital expenditure in the proposed 2021 budget for the ministries of Transport, Power, Aviation, Science and Technology, and Mines and Steel Development, respectively.
Furthermore, in the 2019 financials, the NNPC said it paid N91.336 billion to the government as income tax in 2019; and N74.177 billion as interest on loans in the same year.
However, staff of the NNPC alone — not including employees of other subsidiaries — received N103.7 billion as salaries, wages and other benefits in 2019, an increase of 13.26 per cent compared with N91.56 billion recorded in 2018.
The NNPC Group had also stated that 27.2 per cent of its total workforce, comprising 1,801 staff is currently employed in the Corporate Headquarters.
To this end, from the N103.7 billion, an average staff of the NNPC’s corporate headquarters received N57.58 million as salary, wages and other benefits in 2019.
NNPC’s workforce
In addition, the NNPC had stated that 13 per cent of the group’s total workforce were employed in the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC); while 758 individuals are currently employed in the moribund Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, KRPC, representing 11.4 per cent of the NNPC Group’s total workforce.
The Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC, which is currently shut down and awaiting revamp, has 655 staff; Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, 550 staff; the moribund Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, WRPC, has 485 staff; NNPC’s commercial and investment subsidiary, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, has 426 staff; while the corporation’s downstream subsidiary, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, has 255 staff.
According to Vanguard, the document noted that Nigerian Gas Company, NGC, has 254 staff; Integrated Data Services Limited, 175 staff; Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC and Nigerian Gas Marketing Company, NGMC, 152 staff each; while National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO) has 64 staff in its employ.
The NNPC had in its report of compliance to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s (EITI) Open Data requirements, revealed that 81.7 per cent of its workforce, comprising 5,410 individuals, were male, while 1,211 were women, representing 18.3 per cent of its total staff strength.
