The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has said that revenue accruing from Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is shrouded in opacity and the country is the greatest contributor to illicit financial flow in the oil and gas sector in Africa.

ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owosanoye stated this yesterday at the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Summit titled: ‘Transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector’ organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-corruption in Abuja.

He said that the oil and gas sector of the nation’s economy is the highest in revenue generation for the government accounting for more than 60% of national revenue and up to 90% of foreign exchange earnings. He further said that the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill into the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the privatisation of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), now Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), is only a step in the envisaged reforms in the critical sector.

He said: “The challenges in the sector are aptly demonstrated by the recent public revelation of what many players in the sector know was happening all along – the outright theft of oil revenue by conspiracy and collaboration of the private and public sector players.” In his presentation at the summit, EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa charged committees of the National Assembly to extend their oversight functions to allegations of crude oil theft in the country, adding that the agency was “engrossed in investigating allegations of crude oil theft”.

Also at the summit, the Group Managing Director/ CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Engr. Mele Kyari said there will always be infractions and fraud if subsidy persists in the sector. He disclosed that NNPCL was the only company in the world that publishes its financial statement monthly lamenting that it was unfortunate that the defunct NNPC did not make public its statement of accounts for 40 years. According to him, the corporation recorded a loss of over N802 billion in 2018, which came down to N1.3 billion in 2019. He further disclosed that in 2020, the Corporation made a profit of over N207 billion which increased to N621 billion in 2021.

Earlier in a remark, the Speaker of the House Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila said that the oil and gas industry had provided millions of jobs, aided government administration and national defence to the tune of hundreds of billions of naira Chairman of the House committee on anti-corruption, Hon. Shehu Garba said that the summit was organised with a view to creating a platform where there will be stakeholders brainstorming on the provisions of the legal and regulatory framework in the oil and gas sector. In a goodwill message, Ms Marija Peran, Resident Representative of the Konrad- Adenauer-Foundation, queried why Nigeria is blessed with natural resources yet so poor. She said: “As the resident representative of a German organisation funded by the German federal government, I am in regular contact with German and European stakeholders – members of the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of governments, experts, colleagues – and the question I get asked most of the time is: ‘How come that Nigeria, a country so rich in natural resources like oil and gas, does not manage to benefit from this richness and to extend this benefit to its citizens through sustainable development?’” (New Telegraph)