With over 50 member countries, the multi-stakeholder partnership (MSP) EITI stands for more transparent management of natural resources worldwide. In addition to Nigeria, Germany has also been actively involved since 2016 with its offspring D-EITI. All members commit to releasing information along the value chains of natural resources. This includes everything from the allocation of mining rights to the question of how the revenues reach the government and how they benefit the public.
Nigeria – a country with a strong economic focus on the export of raw materials – has been active with its offspring N-EITI since 2007. Even though the oil and gas sector contributes to about 65% of the gross domestic product, it has had limited impact on socio-economic development in the past. Reasons for this include corruption in the extractive sector. Now, however, it has become apparent that the country is on the path of improvement and great successes are being recorded as a result of its membership in EITI. The 2019 N-EITI Report revealed that around 77 oil and gas companies owe the Nigerian government up to 6.8 billion US-dollars in tax revenues, among other things. Following the release of this information, this figure has now been reduced to around 2.6 billion US-dollars in 2022. As N-EITI Executive Secretary Ogbonnaya Orji notes, the money was paid without further opposition after publication of the report.
This underscores N-EITI‘s successful membership and hopes for continued success along commodity value chains. Last but not least, the MSP was also ranked second in the country’s Freedom of Information (FOI) transparency rankings, once again underscoring the relevance of its work.
