The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced on Monday that it would begin sale of shares in 2024.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, disclosed this during an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday, saying the earliest the corporation can issue its Initial Public Offer to investors is in the next three years.
The announcement is said to be one of the outcomes of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) recently signed on the state-owned corporation in the global market.
However, Kyari stated that the NNPC may not be able to offer its shares to the public by 2022 or 2023 due to certain bottlenecks that had lingered over the years.
He said, “We will be in the position to consider any IPO in three years’ time; that is the provision of the law.
“But when you want to get ready for IPO, you need to do things different. You need to get your books correct; you need to recapitalize; you need to shape your portfolio and many more things that you have to do until you get IPO ready.
“Surely, it is not what we will do in 2022 or 2023; probably the earliest consideration will be in three years’ time.”
It was reported last week that the corporation declared a profit of N287bn in 2020, the first time the oil giant declared in 44 years.
Kyari had stated the profit fell far below the NNPC’s potential.