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A fact finding team
of the Oslo, Norway-based Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
(EITI) is currently visiting Nigeria to find out how the country is
progressing in becoming compliant with goals and objectives of the
initiative.

Arne Disch, head of
the EITI team, said on Wednesday Nigeria was one of three countries
selected for the study, among the 33-member-countries in the EITI, to
show how the EITI transparency process can be made to function better.
It is also meant to enable government become more accountable in the
exploitation and management of the natural resources in their domains.

Gabon and Mongolia
were also selected for the study whose report would be presented and
discussed at EITI Conference in Paris between February 28 and March 4.

“Nigeria was
selected for the survey because of her diversity, complex nature of its
extractive sector, and Nigeria’s standing in the EITI global community.
The report will reflect how the EITI process has played itself out in
Nigeria, achievements, challenges, shortcomings, expectations,
disappointments, and hopes.

“It is important to
note that the more attention oil and gas industry operators pay to
issues of accountability and transparency, the more the citizens would
see the benefits of the exploitation of the natural resources in their
lives,” Mr. Disch said.

He visited the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Yayale Ahmed;
group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC), Austen Oniwon; and director, Federal Inland Revenue Service
(FIRS), Ifeko Omoigu-Okaru, to intimate them of his visit to Nigeria.

Mr. Ahmed
reaffirmed the commitment of the Federal Government to the continued
embrace of the EITI principles and objectives in the management of the
country’s extractive industries, saying that “the independence of NEITI
to enthrone transparency and accountability in the management of oil,
gas and solid minerals revenues cannot be compromised under any
circumstance.”

At the NNPC, Mr.
Oniwon said the corporation is ready to collaborate with NEITI on a new
study aimed at evaluating its performance across the globe, adding that
the NNPC has no alternative than to work with the transparency agency
since Nigeria voluntarily submitted itself to the principles espoused
by EITI.

Meanwhile, the
Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has
forwarded a request to EITI Board for review of Nigeria’s transparency
compliant status in the international group.

Zainab Ahmed, the
NEITI executive secretary, said in Abuja that the request is to
indicate that Nigeria is ready to subject its processes to the
assessment of the EITI validation tests ahead of the April deadline,
having fulfilled all the six remedial conditions set out last October
to enable the country attain full compliant status.