NNPC department, NAPIMS spent N90 billion on media, public relations in one year

The National Petroleum Investment Services, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission, spent a staggering N90 billion on public relations in 2021, the annual financial statement of the agency has shown.

The widely circulated audit report seen by WithinNigeria on Wednesday revealed that the department spent N89,928,429,000 on media relations in 2021, representing an increase of 335 per cent against the N20.69 billion spent in 2020.

The report further detailed that the department spent N11.76 billion on consultancy, N2.22 billion on transportation and traveling cost, N65 million and N1.1 billion on advertisements and entertainment, respectively, in the year under review.

The development has drawn widespread criticism with many saying despite the humongous amount spent on publicity and media relations they’ve not heard much about the agency while some said they are hearing about the agency for the first time.

Many commentators on social media also opined that spending that much on an obscure agency in a country grappling with widespread poverty and other social and economic challenges is insensitive and inconsiderate, noting that such unjustifiable expenditure could have only been spurred by corrupt tendencies and not necessarily overhead exigencies.

This is not the first time such a large sum has been spent on a less important component of the organisation. Dataphtye previously reported that NNPC spent a stunning N13 billion on entertainment expenses between 2020 and 2021.

The outlet detailed that the NNPC spent the sum of N11.831 billion on entertainment in 2021 while N1.636 billion was spent in 2020

This spending comes as the country continues to struggle to garner revenue from the oil sector, which has largely been drained by oil theft, with a recent expose revealing that the country was losing the majority of its oil earnings to coordinated theft.

The discovery of an illegal connection line into the sea from one of NNPC’s major oil export terminals that had functioned completely unnoticed for nine years, was recently reported.

Oil theft is estimated to cost Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil exporter, 600,000 barrels per day in lost revenue, with oil companies idling some fields rather than supply pipelines used by thieves.