The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has fixed June, 2023 as the due month for the release of three audit reports on the oil, gas and mining sectors.
NEITI’s Deputy Director/Head Communications & Stakeholders Management, Obiageli Onuorah disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
She explained that the ongoing nationwide audit of the oil, gas and mining industries being conducted by NEITI covering 168 extractive companies and relevant federal agencies are currently at the data reconciliation stage.
She further disclosed that the exercise covering the period 2021 was holding in different parts of the country.
The statement quoted the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji to have explained that the objectives of the reports were to establish the quantities of minerals produced, utilized in the country and the quantity of crude legally or illegally exported or stolen.
He said, the NEITI reports also seek to establish the revenue paid by oil, gas and mining companies and how much of such revenues were actually received into government coffers.
Other areas of focus by NEITI, according to the statement, were to identify investments made by the Federation or the Federal Government in the oil, gas and mining industries, track subsidy payments, company remittances and liabilities.
NEITI in the statement further explained that the processes followed in business various transactions especially the basis for computation and remittances of all revenues payable to government such as taxes, royalties and rents are equally of interest to NEITI.
Dr. Orji explained a total of 66 companies’ oil and gas companies and 14 government agencies are covered and currently working NEITI in the sector audit.
The Executive Secretary noted that the level of cooperation by companies and government agencies covered by the audit are encouraging.
“From the preliminary reports I have reviewed, 62 companies fully complied with detailed information and data as contained in NEITI templates/checklist while we await full compliance by only 4 companies.
“In the Solid Minerals Sector, 102 companies are undergoing through the NEITI Audit. The exercise which has reached advanced stage has recorded full compliance by 92 while NEITI is following 10 companies very closely.
“NEITI audit in the solid minerals industry is reviewing information and data on revenue streams, distribution of revenues, licensing process including register and allocation of licenses, information on beneficial ownership and the status of contribution of the solid minerals to the economy.
“Other areas of interest include trend analysis of production volumes data, royalty payments, export destinations of Nigeria’s solid minerals, the sector relevance shaping economic policy.
“On the Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement audit, NEITI is examining revenues received from oil, gas and mining producing states and statutory relevant government agencies and the utilisation of such revenues for development projects.
“In this particular NEITI audit, 9 states and 14 Federal Agencies are covered. The states are Gombe, Nasarawa, Rivers, Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Imo, Kano and Ondo State.
“Out of the 9 states only two are yet to fully provide NEITI with relevant information and data”, he said.
