Nigeria gets extractive industry transparency approval

Nigeria gets extractive industry transparency approval

Nigeria’s long quest for endorsement as Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (EITI) compliant country has got the nod of the board
of the international transparency group during its fifth global conference of
the EITI in Paris, France.

The board noted Nigeria’s commitment to the EITI process, adding
that the board and management of the Nigerian Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (NEITI) had met all the conditions identified for the
country during EITI Board’s meeting in Tanzania last October.

It expressed satisfaction with Nigeria’s commitment to openness
and transparency in the management of revenues from the oil, gas, and solid
mineral sectors through its support to the work of NEITI and its audit
processes.

Other revenue avenues

Emphasising the need to extend its EITI implementation to cover
revenue flows from Nigeria’s interest in the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) of
Sao Tome and Principe as well as the solid mineral sectors, the EITI urged
Nigeria to ensure that implementations of ongoing actions in these sectors are
effected latest by next year.

The EITI International welcomed the revitalisation of
inter-ministerial task team to address remediation issues identified by NEITI
audit reports and other far reaching measures by Nigeria through NEITI to
enthrone transparency and accountability in the extractive sectors.

The EITI International board expressed satisfaction with the
content of the recent audit report by NEITI, which covers the period,
2006-2008, and called for the implementation of the recommendations contained
in that report.

“Nigeria’s endorsement as EITI Compliant Country is encouraging.
But, the challenge now for the country is to ensure that the established high
standards are maintained and sustained in NEITI’s interface with oil and solid
mineral sectors, particularly in the discharge of its mandates under the NEITI
Act of 2007,” NEITI executive secretary, Zainab Ahmed, said yesterday.

NEITI chairman, Assisi Asobie, who led the delegation to the
conference, said the development is an invitation to investors to explore the
opportunities in the country’s extractive sector with the global recognition of
Nigeria’s openness.

Nigeria was adjudged close to compliant at the last meeting of
the EITI Board held in Tanzania last October and was given six conditions to
meet before it could become an EITI compliant country.

The conditions include publication of 2006-2008 NEITI audit
report, publication of a board charter to streamline the board of NEITI and the
secretariat, among others.

At the conference, four other countries were also pronounced as compliant.
They are Norway, Niger, Kyrgyzstan, and Yemen, bringing to 10 the number of
complaint countries out of 33 countries that have so far embraced the EITI
globally.

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