Nigeria Flag
Nigeria Makes
Nigeria Flag
Nigeria Makes Satisfactory Progress in EITI
Standard
Nigeria’s pioneering use of multi-stakeholder governance to
disclose data on its upstream extractives value chain was
recognised by the EITI Board. It became the first Anglophone
African country to have made satisfactory progress in implementing
all the requirements of the EITI Standard. It now faces the
challenge of entrenching this transparency in routine government
and company systems.
“Nigeria’s implementation of the EITI Standard remains in many
respects a model for implementing countries globally,” said Chair
of the EITI Board Fredrik Reinfeldt. “Apart from its scope, NEITI
reports have shaped major reforms initiated in the sector,
including those by the national oil company, NNPC. We hope the
government will continue to use the NEITI process to inform its
policies for better governance.”
Over 15 years of implementing the EITI, the Nigeria EITI (NEITI)
has become an independent watchdog that holds stakeholders in the
crucial hydrocarbons – and more recently solid minerals – sector to
account. Since 2017, NEITI has disclosed key data on its allocation
of licenses, on the administration of oil and gas subnational
transfers and on crude sales and other processes within the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“The NEITI reports form the basis for reforms in the oil, gas
and mining industry, as was laid out in President Muhammadu
Buhari’s 2015 political campaign manifesto,” said Zainab Shamsuna
Ahmed, Nigeria’s federal minister of finance and an EITI Board
member. “Inspired by the EITI, the Nigerian government now conducts
monthly routine reconciliations for all sectors, not just the
extractives, which has increased government revenues.”
Africa’s biggest oil producing nation currently pumps around 2
million barrels of oil a day and plans to roughly double output by
2020. After nearly 50 years of exploration, the country still has
four times more in reserves than its nearest rival Angola. The
Nigerian economy remains heavily dependent on the oil and gas
sector, which accounts for 65% of government revenue. Yet the
country has faced long-standing challenges in managing the sector,
which has been riddled with corruption and the unaccountable use of
revenues.
NEITI has improved Nigeria’s domestic resource mobilisation,
with some USD 20 billion recoverable revenues identified.
“Through NEITI’s reports and interventions, Nigerians now know
more about the operations of the sector, which despite low
commodity prices, still remains the backbone of their economy.
Citizens, civic groups and the media are now better armed with
information to ask probing questions and make informed
contributions to governance,” said Waziri Adio, executive secretary
of the Nigeria EITI. “Over time, various governments have used
information from NEITI’s reports to recover almost USD 3 billion
that would have ended up unpaid. NEITI’s recommendations are
driving the ongoing reforms in our oil and gas and mining
sectors.”
Standalone EITI reporting will always face challenges of
efficiency and sustainability. The building blocks for systematic
disclosures of EITI data from the extractives sector already exist
within some government systems in Nigeria. Embedding routine online
disclosure of extractives data in government and company systems
will free up NEITI’s time to focus more on analysing the data and
developing policy proposals. It has already started doing so
through its series of NEITI Policy Briefs.
OBIAGELI ONUORAH
Assistant Director, Communications & Advocacy
NEITI, The Presidency.