NEITI records highest impact under Buhari’s gov’t – Orji

By Linda Ifeachor & Mercy James 

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has recorded the most impact since it was established 17 years ago, the Executive Secretary, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, has said.

Orji stated this at a civil society engagement on validation in Abuja yesterday.

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He said: “There are visible landmarks to correlate it. The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was running through all other administrations but under this administration, it was passed. It is a legislation for today, tomorrow and forever and it’s a milestone in the industry with a lot of things that it is going to accomplish.”

He also said while Nigeria was planning towards energy transition, NEITI found a gap on the Energy Transition Plan, especially on its implementation.

“That is why we have engaged a consultant to design a roadmap for the energy transition and that roadmap will be unveiled on 5th October 2022 to make inputs before we finalise it,” Orji disclosed

The stakeholders’ meeting is part of the process for an international validation of Nigeria by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), with over 20 member countries and its focus is on compliance with transparency and accountability indices in the oil, gas and mining sectors.

NEITI said the validation, which is given every three years, entailed officials of EITI from Oslo to visit Nigeria initially by November and later by January 2023 for the assessment of how transparent oil companies are.

If Nigeria scales a pass mark, then the country is expected to build on such success for another three years.

A member, National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG) of NEITI and Chairman, Communications & Civil Society Steering Committee, Mr Peter Egbule, in a presentation on the role of stakeholders in Nigeria and EITI validation, assured that the Nigerian civil society group will continue to support the initiative’s quest for transparency in the extractive sector.