Business
NNPC Plans 2,000km Gas Pipeline, Raises Domestic Oil Production
The Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) said last Thursday that it plans to provide 2,000 kilometres of gas pipelines over the next six years to enhance domestic gas supply in the country.
The NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr Joseph Dahwa, disclosed this in a message during the “NNPC Day” at the ongoing Kaduna International Trade Fair.
He said the project offers great “opportunities for investments for fabrication of pipelines and related services such as pipe coating, among others’’.
“These are capable of generating employment in large numbers,’’ he said.
Dahwa said that the Gas Master Plan being executed in the country would establish a Gas Industrial Park in Delta, which was expected to generate over 10 billion dollars in foreign direct investment.
He said that the project would also lead to the generation of “customised fertiliser” that would stimulate large scale farming activities in the north, south west and south east of the country.
The GMD said that the company was also targeting to raise Nigeria’s crude oil production capacity from the present 130,000bpd to 250,000 bpd by 2020.
He said that the partnership between the NNPC and international oil companies had “contributed immensely to the growth and development of the nation’s hydrocarbon sector”.
Dahwa, therefore, urged investors to take advantage of the flurry of activities in the oil and gas sector to generate employment and promote domestic production for sustainable national economic growth.
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Business
BVN Enrolments Rise 6% To 67.8m In 2025 — NIBSS
The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has said that Bank Verification Number (BVN) enrolments rose by 6.8 per cent year-on-year to 67.8 million as at December 2025, up from 63.5 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.
In a statement published on its website, NIBSS attributed the growth to stronger policy enforcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the expansion of diaspora enrolment initiatives.
NIBSS noted that the expansion reinforces the BVN system’s central role in Nigeria’s financial inclusion drive and digital identity framework.
Another major driver, the statement said, was the rollout of the Non-Resident Bank Verification Number (NRBVN) initiative, which allows Nigerians in the diaspora to obtain a BVN remotely without physical presence in the country.
A five-year analysis by NIBSS showed consistent growth in BVN enrolments, rising from 51.9 million in 2021 to 56.0 million in 2022, 60.1 million in 2023, 63.5 million in 2024 and 67.8 million by December 2025. The steady increase reflects stronger compliance with biometric identity requirements and improved coverage of the national banking identity system.
However, NIBSS noted that BVN enrolments still lag the total number of active bank accounts, which exceeded 320 million as of March 2025.
The gap, it explained, is largely due to multiple bank accounts linked to single BVNs, as well as customers yet to complete enrolment, despite the progress recorded.
