The Federal Government recently revealed that following the intervention of the national assembly it has recovered the sum of N2.6 trillion revenue from international oil companies and other players in the extractive industry ecosystem.
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji disclosed this in a recent meeting at the Civil Society Engagement on EITI Validation.
Mr. Orji explained that the amount recovered was a result of the active role the National Assembly played after NEITI defended its report before its committee.
Recently, NEITI released a 2020 report that listed 77 oil and gas companies that owed the government up to 6.8 billion dollars.
Following the intervention of the National assembly, international oil companies that wanted their names protected, rushed to the relevant agencies to pay up the money they owed.
While thanking the national assembly for its support in achieving the aforementioned feat, Mr. Orji issued a warning to companies still defaulting, to pay up as soon as possible or have all relevant anti-graft agencies swoop on them to recover the government’s monies.
He further explained that the federal government was in dire need of funds to operate, saying it was only rational that those indebted to the country pay up.
The NEITI CEO also revealed that the agency was warming up for another round of EITI validation audits by February 2023, assuring that all hands were on deck to come out successful.
He said; “The forthcoming validation exercise will be conducted using the 2019 EITI standard. It’s done every three years. The global assessment is on and about Nigeria, not NEITI; our agency is only a platform to guide our country’s assessment.
“NEITI as an agency has developed a plan of action to prepare other stakeholders including its staff and board for the exercise based on what our country has accomplished as an EITI member country during the period under review,” he said.
He also revealed that the 2007 Act which the agency operates has become obsolete in view of the dictates of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and global realities, adding that plans were afoot to have it amended for greater efficiency of the agency.
“Part of what the amendment is to give us financial independence. We’re about the only government agency relying completely on FG funding.
“FG remains our partner but we should not burden them with funding issues. We need to move fast with the amendment now that we have an administration that has the political will to amend it”.
