By Bassey Udo in Brussels, Belgium
Transparency, accountability and systematic disclosure of data and information about its operations were the key ingredients that helped build trust and credibility to transform the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited from a loss-making entity in 2018 to the peak as a profitable company in 2025, its Head, Global Compliance, Murjanatu Gamawa, has said.
Gamawa who spoke on Friday during a panel session on “State-owned enterprises (SOE) transparency in action: Systemic disclosure for accountable resource governance,” held as part of the just-concluded 10th Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Global Conference in Brussels, Belgium, said the NNPC Ltd. moved from a loss position of over N803bn in the 2018 financial year to a record profit after tax position of over N7.2trn in 2025.
After failing to publish its annual audited accounts for 42 years since its inception, the consistent and transparent publication of its financial statements since 2019 earned the NNPC Ltd. the trust and confidence of investors and partners that helped transform the trajectory of fortunes.
Although the company’s results improved marginally during the 2019 financial year to a paltry N1.7bn loss, Gamawa said it recorded profits of over N2.5trn the following year, again to about N3.2trn the following year, and another N5.4trn, while the recently published 2025 financial statements showed a profit after tax of N7.2 trn.
Ms Gamawa said her experience showed that far from being a commercial burden,transparency has become an asset for the NNPC Ltd. in the last six years.
Apart from strengthening investor confidence, reducing speculation and supporting the company’s commercial transformation in the last six years, transparency and accountability have strengthened trust and confidence among investors and lenders, enhanced the company’s reputation, and significantly reduced speculation about its affairs.
Gamawa said she was well placed to speak on the subject, having spent years at the EITI working with governments, industry regulators, civil society groups and development partners across Africa to improve transparency and accountability in the extractive sector.
Joining NNPC, which she described as one of Africa’s largest and most complex state-owned enterprises, she said, gave her the rare opportunity to witness how transparency, accountability and systematic disclosure of information and data about the operations of NNPC could serve as an asset and enabler of growth.
“Systematic disclosure is not about publishing reports,” she said. “It is about embedding transparency and accountability into the operating systems of an organisation.
Historically, she noted that the EITI has relied on processes that collect large volumes of data and subject them to reconciliation once a year, adding that systematic disclosure was fundamentally different, as it involves building transparency into business processes and governance systems rather than treating it as a separate reporting exercise.
With reference to the NNPC, Gamawa said structured disclosure of data and information means structured, auditable and risk-based disclosure processes embedded in the company’s governance and data management processes, or how data are collected, generated, validated, approved and incorporated into established business processes..
“It is not just how one sees data put on a website from its raw form,” she said. “It goes through internal governance processes within the company.”
For the NNPC Ltd, Gamawa said disclosures are linked to financial reporting systems, corporate governance systems, compliance processes, risk management framework, disclosure management procedures, website publication mechanisms, and internal assurance and control systems.
The aim of all these processes, she said, was to avoid a situation where people are asked to retrospectively assemble data when it is needed, rather data should be readily available, reliable, traceable and accessible whenever required.
“From a compliance perspective, I see systematic disclosure as a governance discipline, rather than a reporting exercise,” she said.
Highlighting the transformational impact of transparency, accountability and systematic disclosures on the fortunes of NNPC Ltd., Gamawa said although the company began from an imperfect position in 2020, regular monthly engagement with an EITI team that supported NNPC, which she led for one year, turned the situation around.
She said year after year, feedback and independent assessments have been used to strengthen the company’s systematic disclosure processes.
Asked whether greater disclosure of NNPC’s operational data and information exposed the company to commercial risks or costs, particularly in an industry that is both competitive and commercially sensitive, Gamawa said in theory the fear has always been expressed that greater transparency could expose company’s commercially-sensitive information, weaken its negotiating position, or even put it at a competitive disadvantage position.
2
However, she said experience showed that transparency has become more of an asset and an advantage than a disadvantage.
Although prior to 2019 the NNPC Ltd. operated without publishing its audited financial statement, she said when the company published for the first time in 42 years since its existence, the audit report showed a loss of over N803bn, the narrative has significantly changed, 2ith the company has progressively and consistently published its audited financial statements and monthly performance reports on oil and gas production.
More recently, she said the company has also published oil lifting data aggregated at project level, an information that was not previously available.
Six years of transparent disclosure of information and data on the company’s operations had helped establish credibility, consistency and confidence among stakeholders.
In her view, the real issue was not disclosure itself, but how it is managed, adding that the risks that companies run come from disclosures that are inaccurate, incomplete, inconsistent or unverified.
To align the NNPC Ltd’s operations with global best practice, Gamawa said the company has since strengthened its governance processes around disclosures through central coordination, validation, internal assurance processes and communication protocols.
Gamawa identified several positive outcomes, starting with building trust, pointing out that investors and lenders grow more confident when reliable and consistent information becomes available.
Previously, when the company was not publishing its annual financial statements for several years, she said rumours were easily spreading about what it was doing, what it generated and what was siphoned by its officials.
“When we publish our books and continuously put up production data, oil lifting data and sales data, what we tell over 200 million Nigerians is: ‘We are working for you. This information is out there. Hold us accountable,'” she said.
Once the audited financial statements are published, she pointed out that whatever the outcome, including any dividend declared to the government, it becomes clear to the public what the company was doing.
Gamawa traced the company’s financial trajectory since it began publishing its accounts, with the company’s 2018 audited financial statements showing a loss of over N803 billion.
Despite declaring a loss, Gamawa said the company understood that it was good to show people the work and efforts being put to be transparent, by sharing information, even in imperfect conditions.
Gamawa linked the transparency drive to the company’s transition under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which seeks to turn NNPC into a commercially driven, performance-driven and competitive energy company, adding that the consistent performance of the NNPC Ltd. has supported its commercial transformation journey and its readiness towards the initial public offer of its shares in the Nigerian capital market.
“For NNPC Ltd., transparency is a tool for positioning the company for market readiness. Transparency is built into the company’s strategic growth roadmap as an enabler for managing risks and strengthening its financial position.
“What I have seen is that well-governed transparency reduces uncertainty, strengthens credibility and creates long-term value for the company,” she said.
Meanwhile, as part of her strategic meetings to strengthen NNPC Ltd’s cooperation and working relationship with the EITI towards enhanced transparency and accountability in its operations, Gamawa, who led the company’s delegation to the global conference, held a strategic meeting with the Executive Director of the EITI, Mark Robinson, and other key officials in the Secretariat of the global transparency agency before departing Brussels.
