NAPIMS: New Business Processes Saved Nigeria $5bn in Two Years

• Says $17/b oil production cost possible by 2018

Chineme Okafor in Abuja

The National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) wednesday disclosed that it had saved Nigeria between $3 billion and $5billion it could have spent to fund oil and gas production between 2015 and 2017, through its revised business processes.

The Group General Manager of NAPIMS, Mr. Dafe Sejebor, stated this in Lagos while briefing journalists at the inauguration of a seven-member anti-corruption committee that the agency set up in line with a recent directive from the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, that all the subsidiaries of the NNPC set up anti-corruption units to monitor and tame instances of corrupt practices within their operations.

NAPIMS is the investment management arm of the NNPC, and it oversees the corporation’s interests in upstream oil and gas operations amongst other responsibilities.

Sejebor however, disclosed that within the last two years that he has managed the affairs of the subsidiary, he has turned around its operations to impact positively on Nigeria’s oil industry.

He said through new measures which include review of oil and gas projects’ contracting cycles; renegotiation of arrears of Joint Venture (JV) cash call debts to International Oil Companies (IOCs); and continuous tweaking of per barrel of oil production cost, the agency was able to save the country that much of money.

He equally stated that beyond the cut in production cost from $78 per barrel to $23/b, NAPIMS was working to arrive at a $17/b production cost in 2018.

“Our achievements are simple. It’s a huge estimate. We were able to bring down the cost of production from $78 per barrel to $23 per barrel and we are charged to further drop it to $17 per barrel for 2018. We’ve been able to save about $3 to $5 billion since we came in,” said Sejebor.

He explained that IOCs who were initially reluctant to invest in upstream oil and gas projects have now begun to make considerable investment decisions following a payoff deal for JV cash call debts which he noted would not tamper with Nigeria’s income from oil production.

According to him: “The implication of them not investing is that production continues to drop and facilities decay. That was scary because if you allow that to continue, operations could die in five years. “We sat down with them and they said we owed in cash call arrears and then we negotiated a way to pay back without tampering with the cash flow coming into the Federation Account to forestall drop in revenue.”

Sejebor further stated: “Also, we turned around our contracting circle from two to three years to six months.”
He noted that staff of NAPIMS found guilty of corrupt practices had been made to go through established disciplinary procedures of the NNPC, adding instances that required the interventions of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) were equally allowed to take course.

“Such erring staff will be referred to a disciplinary committee. If found wanting, we have our various penalties. If it is a financial crime it goes to EFCC but if it’s a corruption against NNPC itself, it goes to ICPC,” he explained.

Speaking on the backlogs of annual financial audits that NAPIMS had not done, Sejebor, stated that as at 2015, NAPIMS had about five years accounts that were not prepared while standard governance meetings were deferred.
“But, we have been able to clear the backlog. 2016 accounts would be ready by December. NAPIMS was able to achieve all these in a short period because all we did was change our attitude towards work and in the way we carry out operations.

“We worked tirelessly round the clock to clear all backlog of legacy contracts in order to close our books and balance our accounts to show that NNPC has nothing to hide,” he stated.

He called on journalists to consistently imbibe professionalism in reports of NAPAIMS activities, alleging that most times contractors with shady acts attempt to smear the agency through the media.

“While trying to drive this change and run an upright establishment, we are bound to make mistakes, please cross-check with us before publishing. When a change is being made, you will meet with resistance who will fight you every step of the way.

“When you are dealing with contractors that are not used to losing they will go all out to smear your name, please when the media encounters this, please cross-check with us,” Sejebor urged.

On the need for the anti-corruption committee which he inaugurated, Sejebor, said: “It’s a milestone to bring corruption to zero level in NAPIMS because we have a zero-tolerance for corruption. We came in August 2015 at a time when oil prices crashed and investments came to zero but today we’ve been able to sit down with our partners, operators to arrest the situation, re-negotiate interest, exit cash-call and the strategy worked.”

“Accountability, transparency should be our watchword. We don’t want to end up like the old NEPA or the old NITEL. We must fight corruption so we don’t eat away our future. No matter how many years you have left, one day we will all exit NNPC, so my appeal is that we emulate the GMD and support his drive by having zero-tolerance for corruption. Let us all therefore work together to creatively drive positive initiatives that would help in improving our efficiency as we grapple with turning around our industry while also ensuring that our business remains profitable,” he added.

The team is headed by Mr. Baffaji Tahir, Manager, Tax Administration, Finance and Accounts at NAPIMS. It has members that include Evelyn Agwuncha; Oyebanji Olaniyan; Yusuf Mamman; Ayodele-Oni Ronke; Aghelegin Joseph; and Udoh Effiong.