By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government has lamented the debt of $4 billion owed to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by international oil companies (IOCs).
This was made known by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Godswill Akpabio, on Thursday at the weekly ministerial press briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the State House, Abuja.
He explained that statutorily, the IOCs were required to provide 3 per cent of their annual budgets to the commission as their contribution to its funding, but none of the IOCs had paid so far.
He said, “All the international oil companies are owing their statutory contribution to NDDC running into over $4 billion for many years and efforts are ongoing to recoup the money.”
Mr Akpabio also said the NDDC on its part was owing contractors about N3 trillion, noting, however, that not all contracts awarded with costs can be regarded as debt.
According to him, the over N600 billion of emergency contracts that had been awarded had not been implemented and cannot, therefore, be regarded as NDDC debt.
IOCs operate in the country in collaboration with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under a joint venture. Some of these IOCs include – Shell, ExxonMobil, Agip among others.
Modupe Gbadeyanka