By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed that it has become an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) supporting company which will help it achieve greater transparency and to help ensure that Nigeria’s citizens benefit from their country’s mainstay resource.
The disclosure was made by the Group Managing Director of the national oil company, Mr Mele Kyari via his Twitter account on Tuesday.
He said that with the development, the corporation had joined a group of over 65 extractives companies, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), commodity traders, financial institutions and industry partners committed to observing the EITI’s supporting company expectations.
“Becoming an EITI supporting company aligns with NNPC’s corporate vision and principles of transparency, accountability and performance excellence.
“Our partnership with Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and EITI strengthens our commitment towards commodity trading transparency, contract transparency and systematic disclosure of revenues and payments.
“We are on a journey towards greater transparency and look forward to deepening our collaboration with the EITI to further this work,” he said.
Commenting, EITI Board Chair, Mrs Helen Clark, welcomed the company’s commitment to the EITI.
“NNPC plays a vital role in Nigeria’s economy. Joining the EITI as a supporting company is a welcome step in the NNPC’s journey toward achieving greater transparency.
“This will help to ensure that Nigerians benefit from their natural resource wealth,” she said
Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and former EITI board member, also stressed the importance of ensuring that natural resource wealth contributes to sustainable development.
“Increased transparency of Nigeria’s national oil company revenues is contributing to improvements in our country’s domestic resource mobilisation efforts,” she added
Also speaking, Nigeria EITI (NEITI) Executive Secretary, Mr Waziri Adio, commended NNPC’s move to support the EITI
“NNPC joining the EITI as a supporting company is a major inflexion point in the quest for transparency – for the company, for Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, and for the country as a whole.
“This is so given how critical NNPC is to the sector and to the country. NEITI welcomes this bold commitment.
“We will continue to work and walk with NNPC to translate its espoused commitments to transparency and accountability into concrete and sustained actions and results,” he said
He noted that becoming an EITI supporting company could help state-owned companies make progress on the journey to transparency
Established in 1977, NNPC has grown to become the largest asset holder across Nigeria’s oil and gas industry value chain.
The NNPC has recently taken measures to become more transparent. In June 2020, it published audited accounts for 20 of its subsidiaries. The Corporation also publishes monthly financial and operations report on its website, in national dailies and online media as part of efforts to be accountable.
It is working with NEITI on an action plan to routinely disclose information and it currently publishes some of the data required by the 2019 EITI Standard on its website.
Becoming an EITI supporting company can help state-owned companies make progress on the journey to transparency. A recent example is Qatar Petroleum, which has been an EITI supporting company since October 2019 and has now published its annual and sustainability plans for the first time.
Dipo Olowookere