Ken Ife, a professor of economics and the Economic Community of West African States’ Chief Economic Strategist, has estimated the worth of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) assets at N50 trillion, saying that the oil corporation can be listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
Ife made the remarks during a GIFT (Growth Initiatives for Fiscal Transparency) forum in Abuja on Wednesday, stressing that the N50tn valuation includes NNPC Ltd’s petroleum, gas, landed, and intangible assets.
He suggested that the NNPC be listed on the stock exchange so that all host towns, labour unions, oil and gas marketers, citizens, and corporations may participate in the public offering.
He said this was the best way to reduce oil theft and opaque petrol subsidy being paid by the government.
“Let Nigerians have shares in NNPC. Let militants and oil thieves have shares when it is listed. Who will like to steal oil when he is a shareholder of the NNPC? Militants will not break pipelines when they are shareholders of the company. Militants will demand dividends, rather than break pipelines. If they break pipelines, they will not get dividends from the company in which they have shares. If Nigerians are shareholders, it then becomes their decision to maintain subsidy or remove it,” he said.
Ife, who is also a consultant to the Nigerian Central Bank, said the PMS subsidy had reached a critical stage, with the government now planning to borrow N4 trillion per year for 50 modular refineries that could refine 1 million barrels per day with just N2 trillion.
He expressed dissatisfaction that the Petroleum Industry Act exempted the NNPC from the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Public Procurement Act, claiming that this was harmful to openness and accountability.
 assets at N50 trillion, saying that the oil corporation can be listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited){kind=link}