NEITI auditing 14 federal agencies, 66 firms; reports out in June: Official

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has announced its readiness to release the three reports on the oil, gas and mining sectors by June. NEITI is auditing 66 oil and gas companies and 14 government agencies.

In a statement on Thursday, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, NEITI’s executive secretary, said the nationwide audit of the oil, gas and mining industries being conducted by NEITI was at the data reconciliation stage.

The audit covers 168 extractive companies and relevant federal agencies, focusing on 2021. The statement explained that the reports’ objectives were to establish the quantities of minerals produced, utilised in the country and the quantity of crude legally or illegally exported or stolen.

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 are 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,” it said, stressing that the processes followed in various business transactions, especially the basis for computation and remittances of all revenues payable to the government, such as taxes, royalties and rents, were equally of interest to NEITI.

The executive secretary said the level of cooperation shown by companies and government agencies covered by the audit was encouraging.

“From the preliminary reports I have reviewed, 62 companies fully complied with detailed information and data as contained in NEITI templates and checklist while we await full compliance by only four companies,” stated Mr Orji. 

He added, “In the solid minerals sector, 102 companies are undergoing the NEITI audit. The exercise, which has reached an advanced stage, has recorded full compliance by 92 companies, while NEITI is following 10 companies very closely.”

In this particular NEITI audit, he said nine states and 14 federal agencies were covered, including Gombe, Nasarawa, Rivers, Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Imo, Kano and Ondo.

Only two of the nine states had yet to provide NEITI with relevant information and data fully. 

(NAN)