Nigeria’s House of Representatives has revealed plans to amend the Petroleum Industries Act and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Act with a view to strengthening the two laws for maximum performance in the country’s extractive industry.
Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Ikenga Imo-Ugochinyere, who made this known at a joint session with officials of NEITI explained that the House is working on introducing key amendments to the Petroleum Industry Act that will ensure stronger provisions for clean energy transition.
Ugochinyere noted that as part of efforts to ensure the success of the House legislative Agenda, the Committee has secured the partnership, support and commitment of over 70 lawmakers as co-sponsors for critical bills which seek to review some provisions of the NEITI Act, aimed at fully realizing its objectives of expanding and achieving transparency in the extractive industry.
The Committee chairman maintained that the amendments will focus on reviewing the NEITI Act to grant the agency statutory powers to implement findings of their investigations, strengthen their governance structure, and grant them powers to prosecute those found to be in breach of extant laws.
He commended NEITI for promoting transparency, accountability, and good governance in revenues from mining and crude oil resources in countries like Nigeria, promising improved partnership of the lawmakers for stronger transparency initiative that will see Nigeria recover more revenues and value from the extractive industry towards a seamless transition into the new energy future.
Editor: Ken Eseni
