Nigeria

The government is fully, actively and effectively engaged in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the EITI process and the government appears to have a strong commitment to the implementation of EITI in Nigeria (NEITI). The NEITI Act is a powerful tool to empower the multi-stakeholder group (MSG). Although funding is a challenge, this appears to be systemic and is not indicative of a lack of government engagement.

Companies are actively and effectively engaged in the EITI process, but only mostly as providers of information. The NEITI Act of 2007 provides an enabling legal environment for EITI reporting and there do not appear to be legal barriers to company disclosure. The MSG is working on improving engagement with the industry constituency.

There is no evidence of any breaches of the Civil Society Protocol. The civil society constituency developed and implemented an action plan for addressing the deficiencies in civil society engagement within three months of the Board’s decision. Evidence suggests that the civil society constituency is fully, actively and effectively engaged in all aspects of EITI implementation.

The civil society constituency has revised and clarified its procedures for nominating and appointing its NSWG members. Each constituency is entitled to provide their binding recommendations on nomination of their NSWG members by the President of Nigeria. The formalisation of the MoU between the Companies’ Forum and NEITI has ensured that industry NSWG representation covers the interests of all extractives companies. The amendments to the NEITI Board Charter in June 2018 strengthened constituency coordination and consultation requirements.

The NSWG has updated NEITI's four-year strategic plan, including objectives, in December 2016 and has revisited objectives through the annual updates to the NEITI work plan in 2017 and 2018. Analysis of the 2018 work plan indicates that all aspects of Requirement 1.5 have been fulfilled and that the broader objective of annual work planning has been met.

NEITI Reports describe the legal environment and fiscal framework for both solid minerals as well as oil and gas. The main laws are described in general terms, the main taxes are listed, the degree of fiscal devolution is clearly defined and the main on-going or planned reforms are noted.

NEITI has disclosed information on the mining, oil and gas licenses awarded and transferred in 2015, including in the NSTP-JDZ, confirming the lack of non-trivial deviations from the applicable legal and regulatory framework. It has publicly described the process for awarding and transferring licenses, including technical and financial criteria assessed and the list of bidders for the three oil and gas licenses awarded in 2015 through competitive tender.

NEITI has published information on all licenses held by material companies covering all data points per Requirement 2.3, aside from dates of application for 15 of the 23 oil and gas production licenses and license coordinates for three oil and gas licenses. There was no oil and gas production associated with these three licenses in 2015. The MMSD’s GeoMining Investor Portal provides all information per Requirement 2.3 aside from dates of application and license coordinates. However, this data is publicly-accessible free of charge upon request to the MCO’s head office.

While there are only licenses, no contracts, in the solid minerals sector, Nigeria has clarified the government’s policy on contract disclosure and reviewed actual practice in the oil and gas sector.

The Validation of Requirement 2.5 in 2021 focused only on assessing the country’s progress in meeting the initial criteria. Nigeria has established a legal framework for beneficial ownership disclosures. All companies applying for mining licenses are requested to submit data on their beneficial owners, while similar regulations being developed (but not yet implemented) for companies applying for petroleum licenses. An interim public online register has been established by NEITI, pending the Corporate Affairs Commission’s permanent register.

There were no material SOEs in mining in 2015. NEITI has published information confirming that state participation in oil and gas is material, disclosed a list of companies and joint ventures in which NNPC held equity and a list of PSCs in which NNPC held participating interests, including the lack of changes in 2015. NEITI has provided an overview of the statutory rules governing the financial relations between NNPC and government and highlighted deviations in practice. Finally, NEITI has disclosed information on loans and guarantees.

The EITI Reports provide extensive information on the solid minerals, oil and gas sectors, including information on history, reserves, location, trade profile and significant exploration activities.

The 2015 EITI Reports provided the 2015 production volumes and values for all extractives commodities produced in 2015.

The 2015 EITI Reports provided the 2015 export volumes and values for every extractives commodity exported in 2015.

The 2015 EITI Reports provide the NSWG's definition of the materiality thresholds for selecting revenues and companies. All material companies and government entities reported comprehensively all material payments and revenues in the 2015 EITI Reports. While the exclusion from reconciliation of revenue flows listed in Requirement 4.1.b poses a procedural challenge, it is considered that the broader objective of revenue transparency was achieved given the exclusion of these revenues on quantitative materiality grounds. Full unilateral government disclosures of material revenues was provided.

The 2013 EITI Report provides volumes collected, sold and proceeds generated from the state’s share of in-kind revenues. The MSG has gone beyond the requirement in disclosing significant additional information on the terms of sales and buyers of Nigeria’s share of crude oil production. The requirement is not applicable in the solid minerals sector.

The 2015 EITI Report confirms the lack of barters or infrastructure arrangements in mining in 2015. The 2015 EITI Report identifies Offshore Processing Agreements (OPAs) as barters and provides a comprehensive description of the terms of the relevant agreements and contracts, the parties involved, the resources pledged by the state, the value of the balancing benefit stream, and the materiality of these agreements relative to conventional contracts.

The 2015 EITI Report confirms the lack of transport revenues related to mining in 2015. The 2015 EITI Report describes transport revenues in oil and gas and the operator’s unilateral disclosure of such transport revenues in 2015, although these were not considered material. Although there is no evidence of the NSWG considering the materiality of revenues collected by NLNG from the transportation of LNG, the EITI Report clarifies that NLNG is not considered a SOE for EITI reporting purposes.

The 2013 EITI Report discloses SOE transactions with government including the remittance of proceeds of the sale of the state’s in-kind revenues as well as dividends by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG, a state-owned enterprise), highlighting deviations from statutory rules in practice. This requirement is not applicable in the solid minerals sector.

Through the 2015 EITI Reports, NEITI has demonstrated that it does not consider direct subnational payments, either in oil and gas or in solid minerals, to be material in 2015.

The 2013 EITI Reports disclose of revenue data disaggregated by individual company, government entity, and revenue stream.

The 2015 EITI Reports covering solid minerals and oil and gas were both published in 2017, within two years of the end of the fiscal period covered. While additional information was published subsequent to two years after the end of the fiscal period covered, the reconciled financial data was published in a sufficiently timely manner.

The reconciliations of payments and revenues have been undertaken by two IAs, appointed by the NSWG, and applying international professional standards. The ToRs used for the production of the 2015 EITI Reports were not consistent with the standard ToR approved by the EITI Board, although all key steps were followed nonetheless. Appropriate safeguards were established to preserve the integrity of financial information pre-reconciliation. The 2015 EITI Reports provide the IAs' assessments of the comprehensiveness and reliability of the (financial) data presented. Reconciliation coverages are provided. The reports include informative summaries of the work performed by the IAs and the limitations of the assessments provided. There is clear evidence that NEITI has followed up on past EITI recommendations and presented clear recommendations for 2015.

The EITI Reports clearly state which extractives revenues were recorded in the federal budget, deviations in practice from statutory rules and the use of revenues collected by federal entities not recorded in the budget.

The 2015 EITI Reports describe statutory subnational transfers linked to extractives revenues and provide the revenue-sharing formulas. NEITI has disclosed the value of actual subnational transfers in 2015 and highlighted discrepancies with calculations according to the revenue-sharing formulas.

The MSG has attempted to include information on the federal budget-making process and links to some of the relevant government websites in the EITI Reports.

NEITI has publicly described mandatory social expenditures in both mining and oil and gas, comprehensively disclosing and reconciling these expenditures, with additional information in line with Requirement 6.1.a.

There are no quasi-fiscal expenditures in mining. In oil and gas, NEITI has disclosed information on off-budget fuel subsidies by NNPC. While the lack of access to NNPC’s audited financial statements raise questions over the comprehensiveness of NEITI’s reporting, there was consensus among stakeholders consulted that the 2015 EITI Report was comprehensive of NNPC’s quasi-fiscal expenditures.

NEITI has published data on the contribution, in absolute and relative terms, of both oil and gas and solid minerals to GDP, government revenues, exports and employment, identifying the location of production.

The MSG has taken steps to ensure that the EITI Report is comprehensible, actively promoted and publicly accessible. Through the organisation of dissemination events and workshops, NEITI has ensured that the EITI has also contributed to public debate.

EITI Reports, and particularly their simplified versions, are accessible, provided in machine readable format, and actively disseminated.

While recommendations of EITI Reports are not consistently implemented, the MSG has debated the recommendations and ensured that they are addressed by relevant government entities. The government has also established the Inter-Ministerial Task Team to steer implementation of the recommendations while legislators have formed an ad hoc committee to follow up.

NEITI uses the Annual Progress Reports to benchmark its strategic decisions to its overall record of achievements, identify shortcomings and look at future projections.