Nigeria scales through global EITI assessment

Nigeria has scaled through the final global assessment of the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

The result of the assessment was announced on Thursday by the International Board of EITI at its 58th board meeting coordinated from the international headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and presided over by Helen Clark, a former Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Nigeria recorded an overall score of 72 points in the assessment which lasted 11 months, a statement by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) revealed on Thursday.

The country was assessed on three major thematic areas transparency, stakeholders’ engagement, and outcomes and impacts.

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In the three areas, Nigeria recorded its highest score of 92 points on outcomes and impacts, 71.5 points on implementing transparency-driven reforms in the extractive industry, and 52.5 points on stakeholders’ engagements.

In deciding on Nigeria’s rating of 72 points over 100, the board particularly noted NEITI’s effective implementation of EITI in the country with “visible and tangible impacts on extractive industry governance.”

The board noted that the score of 92 points recorded in the area of outcomes and impacts reflected what the EITI called “NEITI’s robust system for developing work plans for implementation, monitoring and evaluation, dissemination and outreach.

The 20-member board chaired by Ms Clark applauded the visible and tangible impacts of NEITI in leading extractive industry reforms and governance in the oil, gas, and mining sectors.

Reacting to the global assessment report, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, said, “As an agency, NEITI expected a higher overall score for Nigeria given government’s support, stakeholders’ collaboration, the quantum and quality of work that NEITI put in on behalf of the federal government in the past two years. Our expectation was an overall minimum score of 90 points in all the three major indicators.”