Nigeria attains EITI’s highest rating, becomes first in Anglophone Africa

The Board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has ranked Nigeria as having made ‘Satisfactory Progress’ in the implementation of its principles in the country’s oil, gas and mining sector.

The decision was announced yesterday in Kiev, Ukraine at the ongoing 42nd meeting of the EITI Board.

EITI is a global standard for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources.

The EITI in a statement said that Nigeria has now become the first Anglophone African country to have made satisfactory progress in implementing all the requirements of the EITI Standard.

The ‘Satisfactory Progress’ ranking is second highest in EITI implementation.

The global body also applauded Nigeria for using the EITI process to shape reforms and improve transparency in the extractive sector.

“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,” Reinfeldt said.

Commenting on the validation, the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria EITI, Waziri Adio, said, “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.

“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,” he said.