Yemisi Izuora/Ijeoma Agudosi
The Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, made a payment of $46 billion to the Nigerian government in the last 16 years in form of revenue and taxes.
It delivered $33 billion revenue to the government and paid $13 in taxes to the Federation Account within the period.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, who spoke on this when the NLNG management, led by managing director, Mr. Babs Omotowa, visited his office in Abuja, commended the company for the income it had delivered into government coffers.
He also commended the company for having 95 per cent Nigerian workforce and on its current ranking as the fourth largest LNG exporter in the world.
‘’I am happy to hear that your workforce and management team is 95% Nigerians and NLNG has reduced gas flaring from 65% to 25% and your company is the biggest shipping company in Nigeria having 23 ships, also spending N3 billion in Bonny Community as part of their corporate social responsibility.
“This is clearly a good example of a successful Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. We should study and adopt this model,” the minister told the visitors.
In his speech, Mr. Omotowa said the NLNG was currently building its seventh plant that would be ready between 2021 and 2022, and that when completed, the project would significantly cut gas flaring in the country.
NLNG is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC (49%), Shell Gas BV (25.6%), Total LNG Nigeria Limited (15%), and Eni International (10.4%).