Stakeholder calls for inclusion of other FG agencies in EITI

By Tunde Shorunke

A stakeholder in the oil & gas industry has called for inclusiveness of other federal government agencies and companies into the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) supporting company.

Speaking with Daily Times, a former president of Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Abiodun Adesanya, noted that the inclusiveness of these agencies will enhance their operations and financial activities in a very transparent and accountable way.

Commenting on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) inclusive in the EITI supporting system, Adesanya, who commended the corporation said: “It project a good omen, it shows that NNPC is committed to carrying out its operations and their financial activities in a very transparent and open manner.”

According to him, it means that this present management of NNPC is open to excellent transparent processes which is good for development, but if other government agencies of government and companies can do the same.

“So, it’s kudos to the management because it’s a very positive and good initiative,” he added.

It would be recall that NNPC partnered the EITI supporting company to boost transparency and accountability of the corporation.

NNPC is joining over 65 extractives companies, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), commodity traders, financial institutions and industry partners who commit to observing the EITI’s supporting company expectation.

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EITI is a global standard for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources which seek to address the key governance issues in the extractive sectors.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, and former EITI Board member, Zainab Ahmed, also commented that, “Increased transparency of Nigeria’s national oil company revenues is contributing to improvements in our country’s domestic resource mobilisation efforts.”