Renowned development economist, Professor Ken Ife, has alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is withholding a significant portion of fuel subsidy savings meant for the federal government, revealing that only 50 per cent of the funds have actually reached President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
Prof. Ife made the explosive revelation during a live appearance on Trust TV on Friday, July 25, 2025, where he shed light on the murky financial practices surrounding Nigeria’s oil sector. According to him, the NNPC has effectively “trapped” half of the potential gains from the fuel subsidy removal, frustrating the federal government’s reform agenda.
“But what has happened was that the devil shifted from what was going on… to now making NNPC a much more dangerous animal for this country,” Prof. Ife stated, emphasizing that the corporation has increasingly operated outside of transparent financial frameworks.
He accused the NNPC of bypassing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by engaging in direct crude oil swap arrangements, a practice that prevents revenue from entering the official government account and weakens public financial oversight. Prof. Ife described this development as a major impediment to the government’s ability to deliver on its post-subsidy promises.
“Only 50 per cent of the subsidy removal benefit is actually coming to the government. The rest is trapped in opaque transactions controlled by the NNPC,” he said.
The revelation has sparked debate among economists and policy analysts who argue that unless the federal government reins in the financial independence of NNPC, efforts to rebuild the economy through subsidy savings will be futile.
Calls are now mounting for a full audit of the NNPC’s accounts and operations under the new subsidy regime.
SOURCE: Opera/CrownBenjamin
