ABUJA – Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has confirmed that he granted approvals to the NNPC while he was Acting President.
He however clarified that the approvals were for financing arrangements for the Joint Ventures between the corporation and International Oil Companies, IOCs, and not approvals for contracts.
Mr Osinbajo disclosed this to reporters after the ground-breaking multi-billion Naira historic Bonny-Bodo road project, in Bonny, Rivers State.
According to him, “These were financing loans. Of course, you know what the Joint Ventures are, with the lOCs, like Chevron, that had to procure.
“In some cases, NNPC and their Joint Venture partners have to secure loans and they need authorisation to secure those loans while the President was away.
“The law actually provides for those authorisations. So I did grant two of them and those were presidential approvals, but they are specifically for financing joint ventures and they are loans not contracts.”
Media Aide to the Vice President, Laolu Akande, had earlier tweeted “In response to media inquiries on the NNPC Joint Venture financing arrangements, VP Osinbajo, as Acting President, approved the recommendations after due diligence and adherence to established procedures.
“Action necessary to deal with huge backlog of unpaid cash calls which the Buhari administration inherited, and to incentivize much needed fresh investments in the oil and gas sector.”
