NEITI wants quicker passage of  PIGB by House to address investment loss of $200‎ billion 

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) is calling on the Federal House of Representatives to follow the footsteps of the Upper Legislative Chamber in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB).

‎The Transparency body also wants the Federal House of Legislative to speedily ensure it own passage of the Bill,which would ensure Nigeria does not loose up to $200bn worth of investment due largely to the long delay in the passage of the bill.

“The decision of the Senate to consider the bill as priority resulting in its passage is not only legendary, but historic given the challenges the bill has passed through in its legislative journey for almost two decades “NEITI said in a statement on Friday.

It would be recalled that the passage of the bill is coming more than seventeen years after the process commenced in April 2000.

The agency ,therefore,calls on the House of Representatives to find similar courage to give the bill an accelerated consideration on  its merit  in overriding public interest.

The statement said,”We also note that the objective of a petroleum sector Law remains to develop a dynamic governance  framework that will re-position the Petroleum industry to fully embrace competition, openness, accountability, professionalism as well as better profit returns on investments”

NEITI also notes that the public outcry that greeted the failure of the last National Assembly to pass this important Bill perhaps informed the current Senate’s resolve to revive legislative interest on the Bill resulting in the milestone achievement recorded at the moment.

“We are delighted that to avoid the controversies that killed the last PIB, the current Senate, carefully assembled experts who carefully broke the Bill into various segments beginning with the governance aspect of the proposed law.

 The PIGB now passed by the Senate is a product of this creative initiative”.

We also note  that  NEITI’s 2013 audit of the oil and gas sector revealed that a cumulative $10.4bn and N378.7bn were lost as a result of under-remittances, inefficiencies, theft or absence of a clear governance framework for the sector. The cost to the nation in 2013 alone was N1.74 trillion.

It is  now hoped that with the prospects of a new Law coming in to place, this huge revenue losses to the nation as a result of governance lapses will be eliminated.

While NEITI looks forward to carefully studying the contents of the PIGB as passed by the Senate, it joins all stakeholders  to  commend Senate for what has been achieved so far  in the passage of this important Bill.

NEITI also commends the media, civil society organizations, industry, stakeholders and experts who have followed the bill in the National Assembly for their valued contributions to the process.

NEITI in the statement said it would convey a multi-stakeholders dialogue on the provisions of the bill as passed by the Senate to set the stage for informed stakeholders’ engagements on how this Bill will positively influence the on-going reforms in the oil and gas industry.