The Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC), yesterday, attributed non fully implementation of national oil and gas policies approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in 2017 to ineffective management of the country’s oil and gas wealth.
It said the policies, which would have helped to grow the sector, were yet to be fully implemented.
Its Programme Coordinator, Tengi George-Ikoli disclosed this in Abuja at the ‘Soft media launch’ of NNRC’s 2019 benchmark exercise report.
George-Ikoli, who said series of efforts were made to strengthen the nation’s oil and gas resources strategy, stressed the need for better management of the sector’s resources in order to reposition the country as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
According to her: “There have been a lot of targets that Nigeria has set for herself; there are a lot of challenges that Nigeria is currently facing, in terms of ensuring that it maximises her revenues; but we have recently, since 2018, being said to be the poverty capital of the world. Our country requires a lot of revenues and also has to diversify its economy.
“The way it does this is to ensure that it maximises revenue from oil and gas resources and potentially uses those revenues to diversify its economy into gas, potentially, and to others sectors as well, including agriculture.
“In the next 40 to 50 years, oil will no longer have the same value as it does now. There is, therefore, need for Nigeria to at this time, enjoy the benefits while it still can. The conversation we are having now is that these are the top indices that Nigeria need to hit in terms of the benchmark that Nigeria needs to hit to ensure that they get all the maximum benefits from the resources,” she added.
Also speaking, Research Associate for the Centre for Public Policy Alternative (CPPA), Mr Opaluwa Enebi, advised the government to make decisions that would guarantee that the country derives the maximum benefits from its oil and gas resources.
According to him, the launch of the free and publicly-available beneficial ownership register may help address ownership and transparency issues regarding oil and gas resources.
He commended the Federal Government for taking steps to address gas flaring through the kick-off of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, adding that the country’s Sovereign Wealth Fund recorded growth in the period under review.
“Domestic gas utilisation improved significantly in the period under review largely driven by demand from the power and industrial sector, however, liquidity challenges in the power sector threatens successes.
“The government has acknowledged Nigeria’s unhealthy dependence on oil and gas resources. Nevertheless, the implementation of the oil and gas strategy fell short of set targets in policy documents,” he said.
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