The Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) Benchmarking Exercise Report (BER) 2017 assessed the operational activities in the nation’s oil and gas sector between 2015 and 2017 against the Natural Resource Charter. The exercise sought to unveil the true state of oil resource extraction, governance, and transparency among others based on a set of underlying economic principles in line with international best practices. One of the precepts assessed is on State Owned Enterprises (SOE) with Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as a case study. Although the report recognized mild positive changes in the NNPC, it scored the corporation low on the aggregate in the focus period. In sum, it concludes that the country is not getting the most from the nation’s oil and gas firm in many fronts and suggests a reform that gravitates the corporation towards a commercially-driven and globally-competitive entity. This brief provides actionable policy recommendations that can enhance the operational and financial competitiveness of NNPC, especially in response to the challenges identified in the 2017 BER.
