By Bassey Udo
Nigeria may be treading a thorny road in her quest for revalidation under the global Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) standard, as its application for a 12 months extension for the commencement of the process was rejected.
The Board of the global transparency group, which is its highest decision-making body, said in its resolution published on its website on June 3, that Nigeria’s application could not be granted because no exceptional circumstances exist to warrant such a request.
EITI validation, which holds between two and four years, is EITI’s quality assurance mechanism to assess member-country’s performance, in terms of progressive and impactful adherence to its stipulated standards and principles to strengthen good governance in the management of oil, gas and mining sectors resources.
NEITI Board’s Request
The National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG), otherwise called the Nigeria EITI (NEITI) Board had, in a letter dated March 23, 2026, addressed to the EITI Board Chair, requested the EITI International Secretariat to defer the commencement of the country’s Validation process from its scheduled July 1, 2026 deadline to July 1, 2027.
The NEITI Board cited “unforeseen national budgetary constraints and fiscal deficits in the Federal Government’s 2025–2026 Appropriation as constraining reason for the delays in disbursement of funds to NEITI for the procurement of an Independent Administrator to produce the 2024 EITI Report.
The EITI Report, which is a fundamental requirement for EITI member-countries preparing for the validation exercise, has not been produced by NEITI despite its plan to finalize and publish its 2024 edition ahead of the July 1, 2026 deadline.
Paucity of funds was blamed for the decision to shift till October 2026 the publication of the report described as critical to NEITI’s drive to demonstrate Nigeria’s progress in implementing the 2023 EITI Standard.
No exceptional circumstances to justify request
In rejecting Nigeria’s request, the EITI Secretariat said it took into consideration the criteria for assessing Validation extension requests by member countries, as adopted by the Board in its decision 2023-42/BC-341.
Although the Board said Nigeria met EITI’s requirement that the request must be made in advance and endorsed by the EITI multi-stakeholder group, it pointed out that there was no “exceptional circumstances beyond the NEITI Board’s control to justify such a request, as the issues of allocation of resources and budgetary constraints were well within the control of the government to address.
The International Secretariat acknowledged efforts by Nigeria towards meeting the July deadline, including reconstitution of the NEITI Board in April 2024; regular activities in line with its work plan; reactivation of an Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT), and provision of a cross-sectoral platform for implementation and follow-up on corrective actions identified during the last validation exercise, among other.
Risks inherent in approving request
Despite NEITI considering the publication of the 2024 EITI Report as a key part of Nigeria’s preparations for the coming validation, the International Secretariat suggested that the 2023 EITI Report could also be used for the validation exercise, as the NEITI Board would be allowed to progress on the templates based on a report already issued in 2024.
“There is a risk in delaying the Validation to next year. Elections scheduled in early 2027 will likely lead, as previously, to the disbanding of the MSG. Reconstituting the MSG will take time and likely to lead to turnover from key government representatives,” the EITI Secretariat pointed out.
Why Validation
The EITI usually uses validation exercise to assesses member countries’ level of compliance with its standards in terms of transparency through publicly disclosed information; reviews of stakeholder engagement, in terms of processes to promote government, industry and civil society participate in the EITI implementation, and measurement of outcomes and impact, in terms contributions to reforms in the extractive sector.
Each EITI Requirement receives a fixed score out of 100 points, based on six categories of progress attained, ranging from very poor (zero point), poor (25 points), limited (50 points), Good (70 points) Very good (90 points) and Leading (100 points).
At the end of the validation exercise, the implementing country is required to receive a fixed score out of 100, based on the six categories of progress, with the risk of either being suspended from the group temporarily for receiving a “Poor” score, or being delisted for a “Very poor” overall score, for failure to make progress in two subsequent Validations or targeted assessments.
Nigeria’s record under threat
Since joining the EITI in 2004, Nigeria has built a solid reputation as one of the member-countries with exemplary credentials in terms recording high scores for compliance with set validation criteria during validation exercises.
At the end of the 2023 Validation exercise, Nigeria achieved a moderate score (72 points) in its implementation of the 2019 EITI Standard, with overall score reflecting an average of 52.5 points for Stakeholder engagement), 71.5 points for Transparency, and 92 points for Outcomes and impact.
Consequently, the EITI Board gave Nigeria until January 2026 to carry out corrective actions to remedy shortcomings in respect of government, industry and civil society engagements, multi-stakeholder group governance, contract and license allocations, license register, contracts, beneficial ownership, and state participation.
Other aspects that required remedial actions included Barter agreements and infrastructure provisions, Level of disaggregation, Distribution of extractive industry revenues, Subnational transfers, Social and environmental expenditures and State-owned enterprises quasi-fiscal expenditures.
Specifically, the Board warned that failure to demonstrate progress on Stakeholder engagement, Transparency or Outcomes and impact in the next Validation may result in temporary suspension in accordance with Article 6 of the EITI Standard.
With the 2024 NEITI Report yet to be published, it is not clear how much of these remedial measures have been implemented.
NEITI Secretariat in panic mode
Our reporter gathered on Saturday that the decision by the EITI Board to reject the request by the NEITI Board for an extension for the commencement of the validation process in accordance with the stipulated schedule has thrown the entire NEITI Secretariat a volatile panic mode.
The Musa Sarkin Adar-led management of the NEITI Secretariat is said to be disarray at the moment, as it seems lost on how to meet the July 1 deadline, which is barely three weeks away.
Desperate to save Nigeria the embarrassment the suspension of the country from the 55-member EITI implementing countries’ group, the Executive Secretary is said to have fired a save-our-soul distress note to the Federal Government through the Chairman of the NEITI Board and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, for lifeline.
In line with the provisions of the EITI Standards, Nigeria risks temporary suspension from the EITI if it fails to either meet the reporting deadline of July 1, 2026; record adequate progress on EITI implementation, or meet the EITI’s requirements on stakeholder engagement.
