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Nigeria extractive industry revenue disclosure hits $500bn

By Roseline Okere
28 June 2017   |   3:47 am
EITI, which made this known in its 2017 progress report released recently, said member countries have made contributions of over $2.3 trillion in revenue from the extractive sector to their various governments.

EITI, which made this known in its 2017 progress report released recently, said member countries have made contributions of over $2.3 trillion in revenue from the extractive sector to their various governments.

The Nigerian extractive industry has so far disclosed $500 billion to the Federal Government since the inception of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

EITI, which made this known in its 2017 progress report released recently, said member countries have made contributions of over $2.3 trillion in revenue from the extractive sector to their various governments.

EITI said it has also made significant contributions to improved governance of the extractive sector in many countries around the world, noting that it is central to many reforms of the sector in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“At the international level, debates on transparency in the sector are unrecognisable from 10 years ago, and the EITI is seen as being at the forefront of many frontier debates, including beneficial ownership, commodity trading and artisanal and small-scale mining.

“It is also clear that the EITI process is one of the only functioning global mechanisms to inform and channel debate in resource-rich countries in a way that includes all stakeholders. In the development business, there can often be a naïve belief in figures.

“While it is important to have quantitative information, it is even more important to have the right kind of information and to have it used. Recognising the large diversity of country processes and objectives, any monitoring and evaluation framework has to be established first and foremost at the country level.”

Furthermore, member countries will be required to request beneficial ownership information from companies that bid for, operate in or invest in the extractive sector by January 2020.

According to the agency, 44 countries have published a beneficial ownership disclosure roadmap and these are, in many cases, the first time EITI countries have considered the policy steps for beneficial ownership transparency.

It disclosed that most EITI countries plan to amend sector legislation, for instance mining or petroleum laws, while some are planning to introduce beneficial ownership transparency through amendments to company laws or other dedicated legal instruments.

“Countries are planning capacity building and awareness raising activities directed at specific stakeholder groups, such as parliamentarians, domestic and foreign extractive sector companies, civil society organisations, media, and the general public,” it said.

The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Waziri Adio, said the agency has started the process of a comprehensive independent audit of the oil and gas sector, as well as revenues earned by Nigeria in the sector in 2015 and 2016.

He explained that the independent audit of the oil and gas sector by NEITI for the period 2015 and 2016 will examine the fiscal, physical and process issues from, within and among the companies and relevant government agencies.

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