The vice-president expects NNPC to list on the stock exchange soon. NNPC's chief executive says there's no date. The Senate is still asking about 2021.
Six stories.
- NNPC's chief executive says there's no listing date, and the Senate's 2021 audit questions are still open.
- The Finance Ministry told senators it hasn't been given the records it needs.
- Ikeja Electric and IBEDC reported lower supply on Tuesday and didn't say why the grid sent less.
- JAMB says it's working towards a UTME centre in Ottawa for 2027.
- The World Bank raised its 2026 growth forecast for Nigeria to 4.3 per cent.
- A Uyo chemistry professor built a searchable list of lab equipment and won a global prize.
Here's what it means.
1. NNPC IS PREPARING TO LIST. THE SENATE STILL HAS QUESTIONS.
On Tuesday, Vice-President Kashim Shettima had a message for NNPC's chief executive. He told Bayo Ojulari, "you will overwhelm us the way Dangote did."
He was speaking in Abuja at the fifth anniversary of NUPRC, the upstream regulator. He said he'd learnt NNPC was going to the stock market very soon.
Ojulari had sounded less sure a week earlier. 29 September. No date for the share sale, he told reporters. A date, he said, depends on "transparency, clear accountability and sustainable performance."
The decision isn't management's, he said. It's the shareholders', on behalf of the country. NNPC had also finished the first phase of a review looking for gaps against listing requirements. The listing would cover the whole company, not just the refineries, he said. And he tied it to collecting what NNPC is owed.
Shettima made the investment case too. Oil blocks now go through open, competitive bidding, he said. Reforms could unlock up to $50 billion in deep-offshore money, starting with Bonga South-West.
NUPRC's chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, had a number. Nigeria took 38 per cent of upstream capital sanctioned in Africa in 2025. In 2021, it was 4 per cent.
So who's checking the books? The Senate public accounts committee, chaired by Ibrahim Dankwambo. It's working through audits of the oil and gas sector for 2021, 2022 and 2023. They're by NEITI, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
TheCable reports more than 50 institutions were invited. Some didn't come. The committee's reply? Ultimatums. 72 hours, then 48.
What are the questions? Big ones. NEITI says $722.6 million that Nigeria LNG paid NNPC in 2021, as dividends and interest earned for the federation, was neither remitted to the Federation Account nor properly accounted for.
None of Nigeria's refineries was running in 2021, it says, after about ₦200 billion went on rehabilitating them. There's $221.283 million in overhead costs at the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS. And a $3 billion loan from 2012, taken to settle subsidy payments. NEITI says the repayment trail remains unclear.
These are 2021 queries. Nothing in the reports cited says they describe NNPC's books today. NNPC has since published audited results for 2025. Even so, on 13 August senators were still asking, and the Finance Ministry told them it couldn't yet answer.
What does an investor face? Kelvin Emmanuel, an energy consultant, told TheCable that Nigeria has no end-to-end metering of the oil value chain. No hydrocarbon accounting framework either. He said that could complicate how investment bankers value NNPC as it heads to the capital market.
Not for the first time. In 2025 the same committee, under a different chairman, gave NNPC ten working days to answer queries. It said they involved ₦210 trillion in discrepancies in audited statements for 2017 to 2023.
By October 2025, NNPC had answered 19 queries in writing. On 11 November the committee rejected the explanationsand said the chief executive must appear in person. In April 2026 it was still pressing, with another deadline. Where it stands now isn't in the reports cited.
If NNPC lists, investors will be buying into its accounts. Have the 2021 queries closed since? The reports reviewed don't establish it. On 13 August, the Senate was still seeking answers.
2. THE FINANCE MINISTRY SAYS IT CAN'T GET THE OIL RECORDS IT NEEDS
The Senate public accounts committee is going through three years of oil and gas audits by NEITI, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
First hearing, 3 August. Empty chairs. The central bank, the Niger Delta Development Commission, the upstream regulator NUPRC and NEITI's own officials didn't appear. Senator Babangida Hussaini wanted the Senate to use its constitutional powers against agencies that stay away.
13 August. The Finance Ministry did turn up. Its permanent secretary, Raymond Omachi, said the ministry wasn't directly involved in every transaction NEITI queried. And the records it needs from the agencies involved, NNPCL and NUPRC among them, haven't come, he said.
He said the ministry was having "challenges bringing them to the table." He asked senators to use their powers to compel the agencies.
The fix so far? A forensic audit by Arthur Andersen LLP. Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, who chairs the committee, noted the deadline has been extended twice. Six months, then a year.
The committee told the ministry to set up a joint meeting with NUPRC, NNPCL and the other agencies. And NNPC's reply to the ministry's account? Not in the reports cited.
What's still open? Four items. A $3 billion loan from 2012 and how it was repaid. $722.6 million in NLNG dividends and interest. $221.283 million in overhead costs at the National Petroleum Investment Management Services. And about ₦200 billion spent on refineries that weren't running in 2021.
Some deductions do come itemised. NEITI's audit shows ₦1.20 trillion deducted from domestic sales proceeds in 2021. Subsidy was ₦1.16 trillion of that. Crude and product losses, ₦16.20 billion. Pipeline repairs, ₦22.05 billion. Strategic stockholding, ₦6.75 billion.
Is it the data or the enforcement? Two views, both given to TheCable. Kelvin Emmanuel, an energy consultant, says Nigeria lacks end-to-end metering and a hydrocarbon accounting framework. Government needs reliable production and revenue data first, he says, to establish what operators owe.
Kenechukwu Agwu, a lawyer, sees it differently. The tools to enforce payment already exist, he says. The test is using them consistently and in the open.
Enforcement has produced money, though. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission told the committee that 24 of the 43 oil companies it invited had outstanding Niger Delta Development Commission levies. It reported that, with direct payments by companies after its intervention, recoveries total about ₦83.59 billion and $98.07 million.
On 31 July, ₦3.510 billion and $14.006 million of what it recovered was still in its account. NEITI has asked for those payments to be reconciled too.
3. IKEJA AND ABEOKUTA GOT LESS POWER ON TUESDAY. THE STATEMENTS DON'T SAY WHY.
Tuesday. Less light. Ikeja Electric cut supply hours. It blamed a shortfall in the power allocated to its network from the national grid.
In Ogun, the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, announced a load restriction on its Ota, Papa and Abeokuta 132kV network. Customers in Abeokuta, Ifo, Ilaro, Papalanto and other areas may get reduced supply, it warned.
The system operator's data put allocation to the 11 distribution companies at 3,998MW. Neither statement explains what caused the lower allocation.
How does that compare? On 22 September the National Control Centre's schedule showed 4,379MW going to the distribution companies at 8:07pm, from 5,403MW available. Ikeja's share was 581MW. But Tuesday's figure comes with no time attached. It isn't a clean comparison.
The government's account is the bigger picture. Power Minister Joseph Tegbe, at his 100-day briefing on 21 September, said generation and transmission had stayed above 5,000MW in recent weeks. Peak, 5,330MW. He admitted the gains hadn't reached most homes.
The sector is owed about ₦3.3 trillion, he said. Government ministries, departments and agencies alone owe more than ₦100 billion for power used. Unpaid bills starve gas supply and maintenance, he said, and unreliable supply cuts collections. He ruled out an immediate tariff increase.
That's his account of the sector's problem. It isn't an explanation for Tuesday's shortfall.
15 September. The Peoples Gazette reported outages of three to five days across Lagos. An X user asked why Akoka had no light since Friday midnight, calling it "Day 4 of no light." Ikeja Electric blamed significant limits on the transmission network.
What's coming? On 30 September the ministry said it was talking to distribution companies, Ikeja Electric and IBEDC among them, about Energy Zones with round-the-clock supply. First stops would be the Lagos axis, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano and Enugu-Port Harcourt. No start date appears in the report.
Lagos's regulator has separately planned a pilot of 24/7 franchise zones from October.
4. NIGERIANS IN CANADA MAY NOT HAVE TO FLY HOME FOR THE UTME
Fly home just to sit an exam? Maybe not for much longer. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, says it's working towards a centre in Ottawa for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the UTME.
It announced the plan on Monday, after registrar Segun Aina visited the Nigerian High Commission there. Start date, 2027. The centre would serve eligible Nigerians in Canada and elsewhere in North America who'd otherwise travel to Nigeria just to sit the exam.
How would it work? JAMB already runs the UTME in about 10 foreign countries, Aina says. It borrows temporary space inside Nigerian High Commissions. Diplomatic staff help run the exam. Ottawa would do the same, which keeps costs low. The start depends on arrangements with the High Commission being completed.
Who's it for? On Tuesday a user asked Aina on X why JAMB needs a Canada centre when several centres at home aren't properly run. Aina replied that candidate numbers aren't the main driver.
North America has no centre, he said, though Africa has several. Potential candidates have already made enquiries. He pointed to Nigerians who move back each year and children of service personnel posted abroad. And no money's been spent so far.
What don't we know? The announcements give no fees, registration dates or definition of "eligible Nigerians." The UTME is also only step one. Candidates then take part in the admission process at their chosen institutions. More than two million candidates sat the UTME this year.
For some families, that could remove a trip home. The admission process that follows doesn't change.
5. 4.3 PER CENT
On Tuesday the World Bank raised its forecast for Nigeria's 2026 growth to 4.3 per cent. 2025 was 4.0. 2027 and 2028, 4.4. The National Bureau of Statistics had the economy 4.43 per cent bigger in the second quarter than a year earlier.
Good news? Partly. The number counts the economy's total output. It doesn't count who earns it.
The Bank adds a caution. Nigeria's growth isn't producing enough productive jobs to cut poverty much, it says. Its country overview estimates more than 60 per cent of Nigerians lived below the national poverty line in 2025. Poor households spend up to 70 per cent of their income on food.
And prices? The same update expects inflation to fall from 23.0 per cent in 2025 to 15.7 per cent in 2026. Falling inflation is still rising prices.
If a basket of goods costs 15.7 per cent more over the year, ₦100,000 of shopping becomes ₦115,700. For a family relying on money sent from abroad, that's the gap to close. It's an illustration of the forecast, not a prediction of anyone's shopping bill.
And 1.8 per cent? That's per-person income growth for sub-Saharan Africa, not Nigeria. The Bank expects it to rise from 1.6 per cent in 2025. A per-person figure for Nigeria isn't in the reports cited.
The forecast says the economy is growing. It doesn't say what a household can buy.
6. THE PROFESSOR WHO BUILT A LIST OF NIGERIA'S LAB EQUIPMENT
Where's the working machine? Edu Inam, an analytical chemist, says that was her own problem. She often didn't know where functional equipment was in Nigeria's higher institutions, or how to access it.
She told Premium Times it's hardest on students. Many need specialised equipment to finish graduation research.
So she built LabEquipment.ng. A searchable platform. Equipment, locations, contacts. It launched in 2021. By the end of 2025, she says, it had 22 institutions, more than 200 pieces of equipment and more than 550 users. Those are her figures.
In July, the Schlumberger Foundation named her one of nine winners of its 2026 Faculty for the Future Impact Prize. Nine winners, from 156 applications in 61 countries. Premium Times reported the win on 21 September.
Inam is a professor of chemistry at the University of Uyo. She directs its International Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability Research.
The prize will help pay for mobile access, more institutions and clearer systems for researchers who request equipment, she says. In three to five years she wants a substantial share of major research institutions to have verified equipment records. She wants fewer student experiments to end at a lab door with a broken machine.
And the question? She wants researchers to stop asking whether their own university owns a machine. She wants this one instead. "Where in Nigeria is this capability available, and how can I access it?"
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