From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has appealed to the incoming administration to strengthen anti-corruption agencies and reform-minded institutions like the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in its economic policy agenda, considering the their unique national and international mandates.
She made the appeal at the launch of NEITI’s gender and environmental reporting frameworks in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to her, NEITI, through its regular oil, gas and mining audits, publications of timely policy papers, remains well-positioned to guide and shape government policies in the energy sector and contribute to robust economic and public finance management in Nigeria.
Mrs Ahmed also described the acquisition, remodeling and resourcing of the NEITI’s permanent office as clear evidence of President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to sustaining the implementation of global extractive industries governance principles of transparency, citizen’s engagement, anti-corruption and accountability in the management of the country’s oil, gas and solid mineral resources.
“Beyond the core transparency and disclosure mandate, I have also seen great and tremendous values in the NEITI’s intervention in the policy arena.
“The Gender and Environmental Reporting Frameworks being launched today represent another important milestone recorded by NEITI. I am told the two sets of frameworks were developed to guide Nigeria’s reporting obligation to the global EIT in the areas of gender and environment in the oil, gas and mining sectors. The development of these frameworks are commendable, not just for the purpose of meeting Nigeria’s obligation to the global EITI, but to help resolve the lingering negative impact of oil, gas and mineral exploration in our host communities, as well as reducing the widening gender disparity in our extractive industries”, she added.
In his welcome remarks at the event, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, revealed that among the 57 member countries of the EITI, Nigeria is the first country to acquire its own permanent building.
“We have already been worldly acknowledged for this and we believe that we will make good and judicious use of the facility.
Under the new environment where we work, we want to use the remaining period of our tenure as the Board to focus more comprehensively on the content and the details of our work that will impact directly, the lives of Nigerians. And that is making sure that the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Nigeria delivers impactful results and energizes more reforms in the oil, gas, and mining sectors.
“One of the requirements since you left the EITI is the fast emerging issues. These are Beneficial Ownership, Contract Transparency, Gender Mainstreaming, Open Data Policy and Environmental Reporting. We are currently chairing the Network on Contract Transparency, we have developed a Beneficial Ownership Portal, and we have launched the NEITI Audit Management System-NAMS.
“The two reports that you are about to launch today are direct responses to our readiness to move into the issues of Gender and the Environment in view of the strong connection and linkage to the EITI desired impact in the lives of our citizens.
“Host communities in the country today currently face complex challenges of environmental degradation. In these host communities, the girl child, women and children suffer the most environmental degradation in terms of deprivation of their livelihood, access to farming and petty trading.
“In most of these communities, most of the rural dwellers are women and children. They suffer the worst health challenges arising from emission and environmental pollution. The two reports you will launch centers on these issues.
“On the Gender framework, the report summarised the EITI’s agenda on gender inclusion to the key operational concepts of representation, participation, influence and impact giving consideration to gender inclusion. The report also aligns with the EITI processes and ensures that disclosures are conducted in a manner that accommodates the interests, views, concerns and needs of women and other groups in Nigeria’s extractive sector”, he explained.
Dr Orji revealed that NEITI will be interested in the issues of abuse to women and children’s rights in the Extractive Host Communities.
“We will build strong alliances with government agencies such as NAPTIP, Ministry of Women Affairs, National Council for Women Society, National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), and women professional platforms like the Association of Professional Women Engineers (APWEN) to enhance women participation in mining and protect the rights of our women and children especially in the extractive host communities”, he added.
On the environment, he said that NEITI benchmarked the EITI 2019 Standard on environmental reporting requirements against the environmental governance in the Nigerian extractive industries. “Other areas covered by the framework include disclosures of environmental issues, and measures to mitigate and minimise negative impact”, he said