‘NEITI Partners With EFCC To Recover $6 Billion, ₦66 Billion From Oil Firms’

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has revealed its collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover $6 billion and ₦66 billion owed to the federal government by oil and gas companies.

NEITI’s executive secretary, Ogbonnaya Orji, disclosed this on Monday while defending the organisation’s 2025 budget before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream).

In its September 2024 report, NEITI noted that as of June 2024, the federal government’s outstanding revenues from the oil and gas sector had reached $6.071 billion and ₦66.4 billion.

These liabilities include unpaid royalties and gas flare penalties owed to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) as of August 31, 2024.

Additionally, NEITI reported $21.9 million and ₦492.8 million in unpaid petroleum profit taxes, company income taxes, withholding taxes, and VAT due to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) by June 2024.

“NEITI is working with the EFCC to recover $6 billion and another N66 billion owed to the federal government of Nigeria disclosed courageously by NEITI in our last report published in September 2024 and 30th of October last year. That process is on,” Orji said.

2025 Budget Presentation

Orji also presented NEITI’s ₦6.5 billion budget for the 2025 fiscal year, with ₦2.220 billion allocated for personnel costs, ₦1.722 billion for overheads, and ₦2.575 billion for capital projects.

He added that NEITI plans to release a new report on the nation’s oil and mining sectors in 2025.

Criticism Over Budget Proposals

The committee raised concerns about some of NEITI’s budgetary allocations, particularly the ₦32 million earmarked for meals.

A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Lagos, Kafilat Ogbara, criticized the allocation as excessive.

“There is no way you can spend that amount of money for meals in a year.

“Most of our MDAs should ensure that what they are bringing as budget proposal must actually tally with the line item and the purpose why you want to use such funds.

“Let us not just see budget defence as ‘the money is there and we should share it… so, let us see how to get our own share’,” she said.

Another lawmaker from Lagos, Ademorin Kuye, cautioned that the National Assembly would not rubber-stamp extravagant budget proposals, urging agencies to be prudent.

“We are all aware of the situation in the country and we must be circumspect and be prudent in our expenditure because the general feeling out there is that the national assembly is just a rubber stamp and whatever they bring is what we approve. And that is not so,” he said.

Committee chairman Alhassan Doguwa echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing the need for government agencies to be mindful of public spending.

“All these proposals are going to be spent at the expense of the Nigerian people. Sometimes, we come to make presentations here that sound funny and very insulting in the eyes of the people,” he said.

However, he assured that the committee would support NEITI in fulfilling its mandate.