NEITI: Oil Sector Employed 0.03% of Nigeria’s Workers in 2018

Chineme Okafor in Abuja
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has disclosed that the percentage of Nigeria’s 69.54 million labour force working in the country’s oil industry as at 2018 was 0.03 per cent.

NEITI stated this in its 2018 audit report of activities in the sector released recently.
It explained that only 19,820 employees were engaged by the industry in the year under review, while its contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 7.8 per cent.

“Employment in the industry accounted for 19,820 employees in absolute terms. This represents 0.03 per cent of the total employment (69.54 million) in Nigeria.

“In aggregate, employment distribution in the industry was 18 per cent (3,595) female and 82 per cent (16,225) male,” it said.
With regards to the size of the industry in terms of Nigeria’s GDP, the report noted that: “The flows in the industry accounted for $32.703 billion in absolute terms. This represents 7.8 per cent of the total GDP (US$ 418.123 billion).

According to the report, total government revenue generated in the industry comprising taxes, royalties, bonuses, fees and other payments amounted to $29.245 billion in absolute terms.
“This represents 93.5 per cent of total federal government generated revenues (US$ 31.266 billion) derived as oil and non-oil revenues,” NEITI noted.

The agency also said in 2018, companies in the oil sector made social contributions worth $902.665 million to support provision of education and other social infrastructure.
“Companies in Nigeria carry out social expenditures in their locations of operations as part of corporate social responsibility. These expenditures are either mandatory or non-mandatory expenditure.

“Mandatory social expenditure is payment made to NDDC or the NCDMB in line with their respective Acts. Non-mandatory social expenditure is the voluntary social payment made by companies in the host communities and across the federation,” said the NEITI.

It added that non-mandatory social expenditures of companies in the sector covered the provision of social amenities such as road, borehole water and health centres, as well as scholarships, skills acquisition and agriculture support.

It further explained that: “In 2018, total social expenditure (mandatory and non-mandatory) was $902.665 million. This consisted of non-mandatory contribution of $59.272 million (6.57 per cent) and mandatory contribution of $843.393 million (93.40 per cent). Mandatory contribution was made up of NDDC’s 3 per cent levy of $683.383 million and NCDMB’s 1 per cent levy of $160.010 million.”