The aim of listing the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria’s oil behemoth, on the Nigerian Stock Exchange may just be a matter of time. Timothy Okon, group general manager corporate planning and control at the NNPC, said a major plank of the ongoing business transformation of the entity is for Nigerians to be given equity stake in order to make it a more efficient and accountable business enterprise.

Speaking at the July Breakfast Meeting of the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce held yesterday in Lagos, he said the company’s strategy is to be a major player along the power and gas value chain. He however said it would require the appropriate legislation to strip it of its current regulatory function and transform into a truly competitive oil, gas and power company. “NNPC wants to attract investment capital,” he said. “We have a 10 year scheme and we think that the second phase will be consolidating businesses in terms of performance management which we are currently doing so that by mid 2011, most of the technical process and structures would have been in place.”

He said under the PIB and National Content policy of government, NNPC’s role would be that of compliance with the national content provisions. “So we expect to see those structural changes where the regulatory functions will reside with the regulators and ours will just be a purely commercial role.” He however faulted the provision of the PIB which stipulates that the national oil company will become a limited liability accompany only of the government chooses, making it optional for government to fully relinquish control. “This is probably the only place in the world where government retains that option two years after.”

The national content policy involves the value added to or created in the Nigerian economy by a systematic development of capacity and capabilities through the deliberate utilization of Nigerians and Nigerian companies in order executing contracts in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Mr. Okon, who is also the director of transformation, said as part of the transformation process, it was embarking on stabilizing and improving the governance system. “We need to improve governance so that transformation parties can come in. There is need to reinforce commercial focus and reduce political patronage. You know at the board level, the board members have fiduciary responsibility under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA). Doing this will lead to improved governance,” he said.Courtesy:Next