The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative on Thursday unveiled the extractive sector beneficial ownership register for Nigeria.
NEITI’s Executive Secretary, Waziri Adio, said the register was to enthrone transparency in the extractive sector in particular and the country in general.
He said, “The importance of today’s event cannot be overemphasised. Knowing who owns what, especially in a sector given to opacity, is a significant development. It is also a win-win. It is good for resource-rich countries like ours.
“It is good for the citizens of such countries. And it is good for legitimate businesses. Ownership transparency advances the frontiers of transparency and accountability in more than symbolic ways.
“It is a practical and potent tool that countries can use to tackle the potential ills that hidden ownership usually masks, such as tax evasion, corruption, conflict of interests, illicit financial flows, money laundering and even drug and terrorism financing.”
Adio said when these ills were reduced or eliminated, resource-rich countries would have more resources to invest in the welfare of their citizens and physical infrastructure needed for individuals and businesses to thrive.
He said the register would enable people to find out the owners and the ownership structure of extractive assets in production in Nigeria.
Adio said, “These are the assets covered within the scope of the NEITI audits. In this free electronic register, you will find the owners of 270 licences in the mining sector, and the owners 61 assets and 56 companies in the oil and gas sector.
“The register will continuously be updated as more information becomes available and will periodically be upgraded to allow for better user-interface.”
This came as the Nigerian Gas Company, the gas transportation subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, announced that it was looking at diversifying into gas processing services, after making a profit of N13.29bn in 2018.
This was disclosed by the Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors and the NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, Roland Ewubare, at the 24th annual general meeting of the company on Thursday in Abuja.
