The Managing Director, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Babs Omotowa, said on Tuesday in Lagos that the company had paid $55 billion to the Federal Government, Joint Venture and other stakeholders since 2007.
Omotowa who made the disclosure at its public presentation of 2016 Facts and Figures to newsmen in Lagos, said that payments made to JV feed gas suppliers from inception till date stood at $23 billion, of which 55 to 60 per cent of this amount was payable to the Federal Government via its shareholding.
He said that the company also over the years paid dividends of almost $32 billion, out of which 49 per cent went to the Federal Government, courtesy of its shareholding in the company, again via NNPC.
NLNG has between 1999 and 2015 earned a total revenue of $90.37 billion, made capital investment of $15.69 billion, paid dividends of $15.34 billion to the NNPC, spent $11.87 billion on gas purchase from the NNPC; paid$946 million as Withholding Tax, $647.8 as Value Added Tax, even as it paid $8.15 million as state and local government taxes.
The NLNG boss said that the company’s assets currently stood at about $15 billion, stressing that the company was contributing to national wealth and economic well-being of states in which it operates by paying all applicable taxes and tariffs and embarking on massive corporate social responsibility initiatives.
He said that its corporate income tax paid to the Federal Government amounted to about $2.2 billion in 2015.
The managing director said that the company, since 2008, contributed about four per cent of Nigeria’s yearly Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“NLNG provided more than 12,000 jobs each construction year. Overall, the major sub-contractors employed over 18,000 Nigerians in technical jobs in the base project.
“Through each Nigerian Content plan for its contracts, NLNG has promoted the development and employment of Nigerian manpower.
“For instance, over 600 Nigerians have been trained in Nigeria and at the contractors’ shipyard in Korea as part of Nigerian Content deliverables tied to the purchase of six new LNG vessels by Bonny Gas Transport, a wholly owned subsidiary of NLNG.
“Those 600 Nigerians, with enhanced skills in welding, hull assembly, pipe fitting, electrical, mechanical, painting and ship design join the country’s workforce, providing a support base for technology transfer and industrialisation,” he said.
Omotowa said that the company has significantly helped in environmental hazard reduction by converting about 146Bcm(billion standard cubic metres) or 5.1Tcf(trillion cubic feet) of Associated Gas to exports as LNG and Natural Gas Liquids, thus helping to reduce gas flaring by upstream companies.
As part of its CSR initiatives, Omotowa said that NLNG promotes the sciences and arts through sponsorship of The Nigeria Prize for Science and The Nigeria Prize for Literature, each worth $100,000 prize money.
NLNG’s support for education is also reflected in its donation of close to N2 billion for the development of engineering education in six Nigerian universities.
This intervention, N340 million in each university, is being invested in the construction of modern engineering laboratories and finishing them with cutting-edge equipment.
Omotowa also disclosed that NLNG promotes acquisition of vocational skills through funding of the Bonny Vocational Centre, an approved centre of the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, City and Guilds of London Institute and the Institute of Leadership and Management, London.
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