Olasupo: Nigerians Should Expect More Revelations on Oil Revenue Losses in NEITI Audit Reports

Peter Uzoho

Ahead of the release of the 2022 and 2023 oil, gas and solid minerals audit reports by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in September, the South-west representative on the agency’s board, Mr. Taiwo Olasupo, has told Nigerians that the anticipated reports would reveal more oil revenue losses and other loopholes in the petroleum sector.

He said the report being awaited would cover more areas hitherto not covered by previous reports, adding that there would be a major improvement in the new report from the ones released in the past.

Olasupo, stated this during an exclusive chat with THISDAY on the sidelines of the just-concluded NEITI National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG)’s retreat held in Lagos.

“In our 2022 and 2023 oil, gas and solid minerals audit reports which are coming out in September, Nigerians should expect to see more revelations in terms of oil losses, revenue losses, monies paid by companies and remitted by government agencies, more areas of coverage, and major improvement from the previous reports,” he added.

As expected by the government and Nigerians, he said it behooves on NEITI to keep improving on its job delivery in line with its key transparency and accountability principle.

He urged Nigerians to avail themselves of the NEITI audit reports to enable them be in a better position to ask questions about how proceeds from their God-given resources are being utilised.

According to him, “it is important that Nigerians know what these companies operating in their communities are paying in terms of royalties, taxes, levies, as well as the various intervention funds that were created to make life better for them.”

Olasupo, pointed out that NEITI’s core mandate was to promote prudent management of the extractive resources for the general good of the people of Nigeria.

He maintained that the essence of an audit was to review and reveal, match figures claimed in documents with the actual and then correct lapses where necessary through recommendations.

He noted that NEITI was established to work as the chief auditor of Nigeria’s extractive sector, “which means through our audit reports, Nigerians will know what we are generating from the oil, gas and mining industries, whether there are defaults in remittances by companies or otherwise.”

“Part of our mandate is to understand how and why our crude oil is being stolen and how to plug the loopholes, and also how to boost investor confidence in the extractive sector so that more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows can come,” he added.

Olasupo, expressed worry that Nigeria was now facing a new challenge brought by energy transition and decarbonisation.

He said NEITI has seen this as a major challenge that Nigeria has to swiftly rise up to tackle and minimised its impact on investment in the oil and gas sector.

“We have to support the government with actionable roadmap on how to retain and stimulate investment in the oil and gas sector without losing sight of the global demand for an environmentally-friendly energy production and utilisation,” he stated.

He, however, explained that the retreat was more like an induction training and interactive session for the newly-constituted 6th NEITI board/NSWG.

He said the retreat was a platform where the members were being trained on or exposed to the core mandate of NEITI, which primarily borders on strengthening and ensuring more transparency and accountability in the management of Nigeria’s oil, gas and mining resources.

Olasupo stated that the retreat also exposed participants to the opportunities, prospects and challenges in the extractive sector, and to chart a way forward on how to harness the opportunities.

He maintained that the session also covered, “how to plug leakages in oil, gas and mining production, revenue remittances and ensuring effective implementation of intervention funds for the development of the host communities especially in the areas of health, education, power, drinkable water, good roads, and clean habitable environment. 

“The retreat also seeks to look at the past NEITI audit reports, point out areas done well and areas to improve upon. So, basically, at the end of the retreat, every member of the 6th board that attended would have been well armed with the requisite information needed to make positive contributions in the course of the four-year term for the general good of Nigerians.”

However, as the representative of the South-west Zone on the NEITI board, Olasupo said part of his job was to educate the people of the zone on the works of NEITI and build their awareness on what they should be demanding from the companies and government with respect to what is due to them.

“I’m also advising my fellow board members that we need to sell NEITI to the grassroots because a lot of the people don’t know anything about the agency. So, it means we need to embark on massive campaign to create awareness and make them see the need to track the utilisation of their money,” he added.