NEITI Stakeholders to Track Utilisation of 30% Frontier Exploration Fund

Peter Uzoho

Stakeholders on the board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) have expressed their resolve to monitor and track the utilisation of some special intervention funds created by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 in line with the mandate of the agency to entrench transparency and accountability in the utilisation of proceeds from the country’s extractive sectors.

Those special funds include the 30 per cent Frontier Exploration Fund being managed and used by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to boost oil and gas exploration activities in the frontier basins.

The funds also included the 3 per cent Host Community Development Fund (HCDF) which is derived from 3 per cent of the total operating expenditure (OPEX) of exploration and production companies in the preceding year. It is to be managed by the Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) in each host community to carry out critical developmental projects in the communities.

Speaking to THISDAY, the representative of the Civil Society Organisations  (CSOs) on NEITI, Dr Erisa Danladi, said the 6th board has taken those funds as part of the things they wound be beaming their searchlight on to monitor their utilisation.

“We want to see proper engagement from the communities so that we are able to build their capacities to understand that they are the people that these funds are meant to work for, to understand that these are the funds that we need to follow through to understand what they do with those funds.

“We are going to be building capacity of the locals, of the regions and civil society in general to be able to pick out those funds and then ask questions: are they being utilised? Are they on the right track?,” she said.

Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr Ogbonnaya Orji, pointed out that there are certain issues that are key in the extractive industry including the 30 per cent Frontier Exploration Fund and the HCDF.

He said the stakeholders would be following the implementation of those funds by tracking their utilisation for transparency and accountability.

He explained, “The point you made about the Host Community Fund is a provision in the Petroleum Industry Act. NEITI is tracking this very closely. We are not involved in the implementation of that particular provision, we would have loved to because host communities really need that provision.”