NNPC Has No IPO Date, Says Shareholders Will Decide
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has not fixed a date for the initial public offering it plans to carry out, and the final say on whether the listing goes ahead belongs to its shareholders, the company's Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, said on Tuesday in Abuja.
Ojulari spoke at a news conference held after the company's Annual General Meeting, where its 2025 Audited Financial Statements were presented.
According to him, the company's attention is currently on reaching a state of readiness for the proposed offer, while consultants and other parties with a role in the process weigh how prepared it is.
He made clear that the management of NNPC Ltd. cannot by itself settle the question of when the offering would be held. "We don't have a date, but we are working hard to make sure we are ready as soon as we can," he said.
"The decision to take IPO is not ours. It's the shareholders that will take ultimately that decision on behalf of the country," he added.
Ojulari explained that the company's overall readiness would first be examined by consultants and other relevant parties, and that only afterwards could a timeline be set. "But just also bear in mind that we cannot just determine a date for IPO on our own. It is the consultants and the parties that assess and evaluate that will give us a sense of readiness overall when they finish," he said.
Three things, he noted, will shape when the offer eventually takes place: what the readiness assessment turns up, the state of the market at the time, and other strategic considerations.
Ojulari described the mandate of the management and board as ensuring that every requirement and every piece of supporting evidence needed to make the company fit for listing is secured. As NNPC Ltd. prepares for a possible flotation, he listed transparency, clear accountability and sustainable performance as conditions that must be met.
He said the company has to reach the standards expected of it before it can move forward with the offer. "Therefore, we need to set our bar where it belongs. To do that, we have to make sure there is transparency, clear accountability and sustainable performance," he said.
He restated that preparing the company for listing is the limit of what management can do, and that shareholders will make the final call on proceeding on the country's behalf.
Once the assessments are done and the required advice has been received, NNPC Ltd. said it will make the date of the IPO known.
Work towards the proposed listing has stretched over a number of years, with the company having previously said it was pursuing a possible debut on the Nigerian Exchange.
In March 2025, the company was reported to be at the concluding stage of its IPO preparations, having started an "IPO Beauty Parade" aimed at picking partners for investor relations, IPO readiness advisory and investment banking support. NNPC Ltd. said the exercise was being conducted in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
In July 2025, Ojulari said the company had a roadmap for a 2028 listing as it transforms into a commercially viable energy company.
In August 2026, President Bola Tinubu again gave a signal that NNPC would be listed on the capital market, stating that the company would be reformed and ultimately floated so that Nigerians and other investors could hold shares in it.
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