Nigeria’s plan to turn its state oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), into a publicly traded firm is back on the table, ten years after officials first floated the idea in November 2016 and then let it stall.
The question facing investors now is whether this attempt will be any different because this time the numbers behind it are hard to ignore.
President Bola Tinubu told the leadership of Nigerian Exchange Group on Aug. 6 that the NNPC would eventually be floated on the bourse in its entirety, reviving a listing promise that has hung over Africa’s biggest crude producer after the idea was first documented in 2016 and a 2021 law ordered it.
The Federal Government first planned to list NNPC on the NGX after concluding reforms in the country’s petroleum sector, according to the draft National Oil Policy submitted to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in November 2016.
“We will do NNPCL reforms to the extent that one day the totality of it, not just arms and legs, the totality of it, will be listed on NGX,” Tinubu said.
