Dr Kingsley Adegbite dismisses the NNPCL ₦210 trillion claim, citing Nigeria’s fiscal limits and joint venture accounting complexities

Accounting scholar and former oil industry executive, Dr Kingsley Ade Adegbite, has dismissed Senator Ahmed Wadada’s allegation of a ₦210 trillion discrepancy in the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), describing the claim as economically implausible and based on a misunderstanding of the company’s financial structure.

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Adegbite, a former Business Development Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at BP, said in an opinion published on Friday that the figure cited “collapses under simple arithmetic and basic financial scrutiny.”

He noted that Nigeria’s entire federal budget between 2017 and 2020 ranged between ₦7 trillion and ₦10 trillion annually, rarely exceeding ₦20 trillion in recent years.

“To suggest that a single government company misplaced ₦210 trillion implies sums several times larger than Nigeria’s annual national budget for multiple years combined,” Adegbite said.

He explained that for such a claim to hold, NNPCL would have had to generate and lose funds exceeding the fiscal capacity of the Nigerian state itself.

The scholar also addressed misinterpretations of the national oil company’s structure, particularly regarding NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services Limited (NUIMS), formerly NAPIMS. NUIMS manages Nigeria’s upstream joint venture interests under multiple layers of corporate and regulatory oversight, including approvals from NNPC, joint venture partners, and regulatory bodies.

“There is simply no operational pathway through which NUIMS could independently disburse tens or hundreds of trillions of naira outside corporate control and partner scrutiny,” he said, cautioning against sensational interpretations of joint venture accounting, which often involve multi-year financing, legacy liabilities, and reconciliation of prior commitments.

Adegbite also addressed the reported ₦5 billion spent during the transition from NNPC to NNPCL, clarifying that the change involved structural reforms under the Petroleum Industry Act, corporate restructuring, asset and liability transfers, and a global rebranding rollout, including logo redesigns, signage, advertising campaigns, and digital transitions.

The expert expressed concern that exaggerated claims about the oil sector often dominate headlines before technical scrutiny, potentially eroding investor confidence and public trust.

He stressed that legislative oversight is essential but must be guided by evidence-based analysis.

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“What initially appears as a monumental financial scandal quickly dissolves into a phantom figure that exists more comfortably in political rhetoric than in verifiable financial records,” Adegbite concluded.