The Initial Public Offer (IPO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will be issued in three years.

This was confirmed by its Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, during an interview granted to Bloomberg on Monday.

According to him, the earliest the corporation can issue its IPO to investors is in the next three years.

He said: “NNPC will now be operated in line with the Companies and Allied Act. 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.

“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 recapitalise; 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.”

On its N287 billion profit, the GMD said, “Obviously this company is changing very fast and on the fast lane. We just declared profit for the fiscal year 2020.

“We are not getting ready for the IPO tomorrow; that is not exactly, that is not the situation. IPO really means this company is going to be profitable, it has a long trajectory, it has a short-term view of how things can be done better to align with the best practice in the industry.

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“We are trying to see how we can relax the existing framework for energy transition that is ongoing all over the world.

“Every country is adjusting its portfolio by doing things differently in a better way and obviously in the long run, this is going to be a very great company and great companies always go for IPO.

“So, this is not something that we are going to do tomorrow. Obviously not. Our new law has made the provision that we can sell shares of this company, but in today’s context, I really say this company is doing great and getting an IPO means that it is going to be better than what it is today.”

The NNPC earlier announced that it is considering an initial public offer (IPO) of its shares after declaring profit for the first time in its 44 years of operation in the 2020 financial year.

President Muhammadu Buhari announced that the state-owned oil company posted a Profit after Tax of N287 billion for the year 2020.

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