A global body that pushes for transparency in the oil and mining sectors, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), has frowned at the old data being released by the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
EITI charged NEITI to ensure that its data were more timely, as the global body encouraged journalists in Nigeria to always put both the local and international transparency agencies on their toes concerning releasing reports promptly.
This came as NEITI announced that its 2022 and 2023 audit reports for the oil, gas, and mining sectors would be ready in September this year.
The most recent audit reports for the sectors, as released by NEITI, were the ones for 2021.
Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja after engaging with NEITI and other agencies and ministries in the sector, as well as lawmakers, the Deputy Executive Director of EITI, Bady Balde, said the 2021 reports of NEITI were obsolete.
He noted that the EITI delegation disclosed that to the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, and his management team during one of their meetings.
Balde said, “One of the discussions we had with Dr Orji and the senior management team is the fact that the data here in Nigeria is quite old by the time it comes out.
“The latest data covers 2021 and it was published in September 2023. I assume that as members of the media that is far from satisfactory because you want to cover present and relevant issues.
“We (NEITI) are now chasing after 2022 data, this is substantially delayed. The reason why I’m pointing this out is because several countries have found ways to produce data that is far more timely than that.”
He noted that in Senegal, they already had 2022 data. “When you were producing 2021 data, they had already published 2022 data, and they are getting 2023 data. I can tell you that by June, more than half of the data that is required will be out in the public domain,” Balde stated.
