By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA (Reuters) – State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd. (NNPC) is in the “final” stages of preparations for an initial public offering, a senior company official said on Thursday, but gave no time frame for the IPO which has been talked about for a few years.
Chief Finance and Investor Relations Officer (CFIO) Olugbenga Oluwaniyi said in a statement that NNPC is currently engaging with prospective investor relations executives and investment banks, in line with capital market regulations and the oil industry law which mandates it to list its shares on the stock market.
NNPC has joint ventures with major oil companies that pump more than half of Nigeria’s oil.
The state-owned producer, which became a fully commercial entity in 2021, no longer has recourse to state funds and will have to raise funding independently.
Nigeria’s oil law required NNPC to list within six months after the law was passed in 2021, but it has yet to do so.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo; Editing by Susan Fenton)
