Nigeria’s state oil company is considering an initial share sale after posting its first profit in 44-year existence.
Legislation signed by President Muhammadu Buhari this month enables the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to offer shares to the public, managing director Mele Kyari said at a briefing Thursday in the capital, Abuja. A listing would draw on the experience of Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil giant that listed in 2019, he said.
“There is no date on it, but there is a possibility of doing this,” Mr Kyari said.
NNPC reported net income of 287 billion naira ($698 million) in 2020, compared with losses of 1.7bn naira in 2019 and 803bn naira in 2018. The Abuja-based company, which released audited results for the first time two years ago, has for years operated under a cloak of secrecy often mired by allegations of corruption.
“Obviously because you have made profit today doesn’t mean you are ready for IPO,” Mr Kyari said. “It is a very, very long, tedious process.”
Mr Buhari became president of Africa’s biggest oil producer in 2015 with a pledge to improve transparency in government corporations, including the NNPC. Under the Petroleum Industry Act he approved on August 16, the NNPC will be registered as a commercially focused entity.
The new legislation “specifies that the company pay its fair share of royalties, fees, rents, taxes and other payments due to the government, and that it should pay out the bulk of its profits as dividends after retaining 25 per cent for reinvestment,” accounting firm KPMG stated in a report last month.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange has a market capitalisation of 20.6 trillion naira ($50bn). The largest IPO on the bourse to date was Guaranty Trust Bank’s $824m listing in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series
All matches at the Harare Sports Club:
1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10
2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
4th ODI, Tuesday, April 16
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Overall standings
1. Christopher Froome (GBR/Sky) 68hr 18min 36sec,
2. Fabio Aru (ITA/AST) at 0:18.
3. Romain Bardet (FRA/ALM) 0:23.
4. Rigoberto Uran (COL/CAN) 0:29.
5. Mikel Landa (ESP/SKY) 1:17.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham
Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate
Final: June 1, Madrid
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
