Senate Urges AGF to Probe Nigeria’s $18bn Dividend from NLNG

The Senate yesterday mandated the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) to probe the reported payment of the sum of $18,323,032,261.03 as dividend from Nigeria’s 53 percent investment in the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) between 2004 and 2020.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Olamilekan Adeola, gave the directive following disclosures made by an NLNG top official at the public hearing on revenue generation drive for the 20212023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).

He asked the AGF, Ahmed

Idris, to among others, confirm if the amount was actually remitted to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which represents the interest of Nigeria in the NLNG.

Other terms of reference of the Accountant General, according to Adeola, include to determine how much was actually remitted to the Federation Account, and to also find out if there was any deduction by NNPC; how much was deducted and who authorised the deductions and the exchange rates applied for the amount that was remitted over the years under review.

While giving the AGF two weeks to complete his assignment, the committee chairman inquired from him if he can confirm the payment of the humongous dividends to the Federation Account.

Responding, Idris said such cannot be immediately verified as the dividend is usually paid to NNPC, which is the representative of Nigeria in the company. The General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development of NLNG, Mrs. Eyono Fatai-Williams, had earlier presented a financial summary of the company from 1999 to 2019 indicating that it had paid a dividend of over $18 billion to Nigeria from 2004 to 2020, stressing that NLNG is committed to a culture of transparency and integrity.