Oil transparency elusive in Nigeria despite new law
Written on February 25, 2008
Nigeria has made some headway in getting its fair share of oil revenues from foreign energy companies, but Africa’s largest crude producer still loses hundreds of millions of dollars each year to theft.
Nigeria passed legislation last year establishing an independent oversight body, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), to make sure that oil majors pay the necessary royalties and taxes.
But anti-corruption activists, while welcoming NEITI, say the law is not strong enough to fully clean up a secretive industry that has fuelled systemic corruption in Africa’s most populous nation.
“The law is a good beginning, but it’s trying to solve a problem that has been entrenched for decades. We can only do our best and the law helps us in that way,” said Shehu Sani, a civil rights activist and NEITI board member.
Nigeria is consistently ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world by independent watchdog Transparency International paydayloan. Oil provides the lion’s share of government income.
Under the NEITI law, oil companies are required to disclose to the oversight body how much money they paid to the central bank based on annual production. The government must also report how much it received.
But the NEITI says Lagos is still not getting its fair share of revenues because no one knows exactly how much oil is being pumped. The metering system in place measures how much oil is exported, but not how much comes out of the ground in the labyrinthine creeks of the Niger Delta.
DARK HOLE
Filed in: management.