 The Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, will soon become a limited liability company in line with the Petroleum Industry Act President Mohammad Ibohari has directed that the state oil company be incorporated. A statement released by his office made it clear that he is doing so in his capacity as the Minister of Petroleum Resources. The President has also approved the appointment of the Board and Management of the NNPC as soon as the company is incorporated. The Board will be chaired by Senator Ifani Ararame and have a representative from each of Nigeria's six geopolitical zones. Melakolo Kiari retains his position as the Chief Executive Officer of the new NNPC. And we have an analyst joining us to take a look at this, Mr Balazaka. Good evening, Mr Zaka. Yeah, good evening, viewers. What is your opinion about the directive to incorporate the NNPC? Well, I heard about the directive. Whenever a directive is given or issued by the President of a country, it has to be taken serious. But as far as I'm concerned and with my understanding of a limited liability company, a limited liability company is supposed to operate like a purely private entity. But to the best of my understanding, government is supposed to be about the provision of goods and services. While limited liability companies are after-profit maximization and cost minimization. Even when you talk about the accounting, the accounting of limited liability companies is called, we describe as a cruel basis. While when you're talking about the public sector, the accounting basis is called cash basis. Even when you talk about international standards of analysis, when you talk about private sector, we use what we call international financial reporting standard. While for public sector, we use what we call international public sector accounting standard. So to that extent, they are supposed to be different. For me, government is supposed to be about provision of goods and services. But as is unfolded, we are going to see whether this incorporation will be geared towards improving the lives of Nigerians or it will operate purely as an entity that will be after profit maximization and cost minimization, regardless of how the inflation is going to be in the country, regardless of how the disposable income of Nigerians will be, knowing that the minimum wage today has been frozen at about 30,000 Naira per month. Well, do you think it will be better run or do we need to change the people running it? Clearly, you do not think from what you have said that the government has a business in what it's doing, but it's done already. But do you think that it will be better run or do we need to change the people running it? No, I think changing the people is not the issue. But what the company represents, and when you say a limited liability company, we have an idea of what it means. And we know the functions of government and we know what private companies or entities are after. The philosophies are completely different. I would want a situation where the price of 12.5 kg of cooking gas will move down from the 6,000 Naira that it is now to about 3,000 at the Nigeria. It's actually 6,500. You can see what you are saying. So I would want it to be 3,000 or 2,500. I would want a situation where the price of a bag of fertilizer that is now between 11,000 and 17,000 should go back to the 2,000 or 3,000 Naira that we used to know so that we can boost agriculture. I would want a situation where the price of a diesel or a liter of diesel that is about 300 now will go back to 120 so that so many of the SME will be able to go back into production because many of them have closed shops. I will be surprised if your studio now is also running on diesel. And after a while, you may not be able to break even. When you look at some of those Asian companies, you know, like the Chinese companies that are even operating in Nigeria, I don't want to believe that they are running what we call a purely capitalist government. In Nigeria, it's a very weak economy and emerging economy for that matter. But time will tell. We will see whether the philosophy is going to be in the interest of Nigerians and bring Nigerians out of the current economic poverty and pain. But it's only time that we tell. Clearly, it will not be fair to come up with a likely direction that the result will be for time will definitely reveal it. Well, clearly, you do have your reservations. What model would you advise if you were made a consultant in the Nigerian government? Oh, there is a need for me to also bring it and try to see how I can marry it with my conscience. Because those are the questions I'm just asking myself. If you were consulted to make things perfect in this sector as a consultant, what would you advise? If they even consulted to make things perfect, then the first thing I will do is to put my thinking cap as somebody who needs to help so that a private or a limited liability company will continue to try, which we technically call it should be a going concern. But also at the Nigeria, I will question my morale. Because for a private company, if the price of cooking goes to 10,000 naira for 12.5 kg, the private company will be very happy. If they go into refining and they make a liter of petrol 300, for them it will be sweet business because they will want to maximize profits and minimize costs. So at that point, will I be having conflict with my conscience? Then the question of morality will come in. So it depends on the kind of consultant and the conscience that will be at play. But what is your general view of the Petroleum Industry Act? Well, so many positives are there on the Petroleum Industry Act. And we have also agreed that because there is going to be a tearing committee, the next one the tears and not some of the eyes that we are not taking care of before the president attends to the appeal. That has been agreed. And in the next one year, we will see how things will unfold. But for somebody like me, I've already known that if we decide because I notice that there will be removal of subsidy, the regulation that will be based on importation. So for me, I'm just trying to tell them that they need to be very careful about that. Because the cost of that subsidy that they are trying to save may not be up to the cost of the energy that will be created when this hardship comes into play. Because if you remove that subsidy, looking at how poor Nigerians are, people can go to farm because of the hostilities there and the inflation rate and other things, that cost of subsidy, they are trying to save. The energy or the tsunami that will be triggered may be more expensive than that. But I would be very happy because I learned that there are about 15 refineries. Definitely, once the refineries are fixed, they will reduce the pressure on forex. And we will internally enjoy what we call sense efficient because don't forget that we are about 200 million citizens and we are in less than one meter of electricity to generate our energy over an hour. There is no way an economy will grow like that. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Balazaka, for your time. Thank you very much.