The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said in a very rare financials release on Thursday—the second in over four decades—that its losses shrank by 99.7 percent in 2019, while “the outlook for 2020 looks promising” as the state oil firm continued to slash costs. NNPC said in its audited financial statement for 2019 that its loss last year fell to just US$4.4 million (1.7 billion Nigerian naira), compared to a loss of US$2.1 billion (803 billion naira) in 2018. Earlier this year, NNPC published its 2018 audited financials, as part of a drive for transparency at the company. The significantly decreased losses in 2019 were mainly the result of cost optimization, operational efficiency, and renegotiation of contracts, NNPC’s chief financial officer Umar Ajiya said in a statement. “The 2019 AFS goes further to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the principle of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) while the […]