No N210tn missing in NNPC, says ex-GCEO Kyari

Mele Kyari, the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, has refuted claims that N210tn is missing from the company's financial records. Kyari, who testified before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, explained that discrepancies found in the company's audit reports from 2017 to 2023 were accounting entries, not evidence of missing funds.

He stated that he had not lost any money during his leadership at NNPC between 2019 and 2025, emphasizing that the flagged figures were due to bookkeeping issues that were misunderstood as financial infractions. Kyari dismissed allegations of N5bn spent on renaming the NNPC to NNPC Limited following the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021, clarifying that the payment was initially made by the company on behalf of the Federation and subsequently charged to the government's revenue account as an accounting entry of approximately N2.99bn.

He also addressed concerns over the company's financial performance, revealing that NNPC recorded a loss of about $803bn in 2018 before his tenure as Group Managing Director began in 2019. Kyari noted that the company subsequently started recording sustained profits for the first time in its 44-year history under his management.