Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr Ogbonnaya Orji, stated this in his 2021 – 2023 reports on Oil, Gas and Solid Minerals which was presented to the Senate Public Accounts Committee chaired by Senator Aliyu Ahmed.
This is as the Senate panel declared that the less than 1 per cent contribution of proceeds from solid minerals to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on yearly basis was not acceptable.
Orji said: “Based on NEITI’s findings , Nigeria needs to invest at least $20 billion per year into gas infrastructure for a period of ten years. The only thing that Qatar Energy does is gas processing through required infrastructure.
” So, in Nigeria, what we need is to invest in gas infrastructure to evacuate gas. And our study shows that we need an initial investment of $20 billion annually for 10 years to be able to generate the kind of gas infrastructure required to provide gas for the whole of Africa and beyond.
“This of course , will require construction of gas pipelines along and across,West African sub-region, and beyond which is a huge expenditure”, he said
The Senate panel asked him what NEITI would do regarding the alleged $8.5 billion which was not remitted into the consolidated revenue fund by Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in 2023.
The NEITI boss said the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), was already probing the agencies involved. He, however added that the solid minerals sector is not giving the country desired revenue as yearly proceeds from the sector is less than 1 per cent to GDP.
The chairman and members of the committee, not satisfied by the submission, said NEITI’s report on solid minerals did not reflect what is going on in the solid minerals sector.
They wondered why only Ogun , Osun , Kogi , Edo , Ebonyi , Rivers , Cross Rivers states and the Federal Capital Territory, were mentioned in the report leaving out Nasarawa , Zamfara , Kebbi , Plateau, Bauchi among others.
Specifically the Chairman of the Committee described the less than one 1 per contribution of solid minerals to GDP as quite ridiculous and unacceptable. “This definitely must not continue, there must be a complete overhaul of the sector,” he said.
