Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC said that currently, it is the most transparent public sector organisation in the country. Speaking at the stakeholders’ workshop on validation by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru, said that efforts are currently on to disabuse the mindset of Nigerians that wrong things are happening in the corporation.
Baru, who was represented by the Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC, Mr. Mele Kyari, explained that things had taken a turn for the better in the corporation, especially since the last two years.
He said, “We have never had it good in this country since the last two years, in terms of transparency of our transactions, validation of our activities; the unfettered, unobstructed participation of the secretary to the government, who has never asked us to do anything different. Today, we need to get people out of the mindset that something wrong is happening in the NNPC. Nothing wrong is happening. We have passed that stage. We are now probably one of the most transparent companies in this country.
“We have seen a number of governments, worked with a number of them; but probably in the two years, we have not had the opportunity to put our cards on the table as we did in the last two years. That makes it easy for us to align with the EITI’s objectives and opportunities that are there to do even greater things for our country. Most particularly, I’m sure our colleagues in the NGOs would recognize today, that things are just different and together all of us will make our country greater and I believe this is the core objective of the EITI. I am assuring the EITI Board and all stakeholders that things are different.”
In his own presentation at the event, Mele Kyari noted that since May 2015, the NNPC had taken a number of initiatives to ensure transparency, such as the elimination of dual pricing for domestic crude allocation and automation of its transactions. Kyari added that the NNPC had re-enforced auditing of its operations, including third party; and the direct sale of crude oil to refineries, reputable traders, upstream companies and Nigerian entities.
According to him, off-takers are of international standards with inclusion of strong domestic downstream companies to build and strengthen capacity, while the NNPC currently publishes its operational and financial performance to the Nigerian public. Also speaking, Mr. Pablo Valverde, Regional Director of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, stated that from July 11, 2018, Nigeria would be assessed based on progress with the corrective actions stipulated in the second validation exercise.
He explained that the planned validation exercise is not a test or examination the country has to contend with, but one way of keeping the EITI family together by providing a consistent way of assessing progress against very specific requirements. He said the validation exercise is meant to help countries as they seek to improve the governance of the sector, adding that it is not a ‘pass or fail’ test, but a progress test. He said, ”NEITI is a government agency with a broad mandate under the NEITI act that goes beyond the EITI Standard. It is up to Nigerians to decide how well they are doing their work.”
He further stated that validation exercise helps countries identify areas where additional information is needed; improve their oversight of the process; encourages progress and helps countries show off where they are doing particularly well. He averred that the exercise provides a wealth of information for stakeholders; consults stakeholders; kicks off important conversations and provides an opportunity to ’look under the hood.’
