The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has called for stronger collaboration with the media to keep vigilance and track issues of poor accountability, broken trust, institutional weaknesses and trillions of naira in unremitted revenues owed the Federation by companies and government agencies.
NEITI said the funds, if recovered, could play a vital role in boosting energy infrastructure, education, and healthcare.
The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, made this known in his remarks at the 2025 Energy Conference of the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC), held in Lagos.
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Speaking on the theme of the conference, “Nigeria’s Energy Future: Exploring Opportunities and Addressing Risks for Sustainable Growth,” Dr. Orji emphasised that transparency is not merely a bureaucratic exercise but an economic necessity that attracts investment, technology, and partnerships.
He noted that NEITI’s 2021–2022 Oil and Gas Industry Reports showed Nigeria earned $23.04 billion in 2021 and $23.05 billion in 2022 from the sector.
“However, the reports also revealed outstanding remittances of ₦1.5 trillion owed to the Federation by some companies and government agencies — funds that, if recovered, could significantly support critical sectors like energy, education, and healthcare,” he said.
Dr. Orji further disclosed that the findings exposed the severe cost of poor accountability, with Nigeria losing 13.5 million barrels of crude oil valued at $3.3 billion to theft and sabotage in 2022 alone — an amount equivalent to the federal health budget for a year or the cost of providing energy access to millions of households.
“These losses are not just economic; they reflect broken trust, institutional weaknesses, and missed opportunities for national progress. This is precisely why transparency and accountability are not optional — they are existential,” the NEITI Executive Secretary stated.