By Bassey Udo
Assessors from the International Secretariat of the Global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) who were in Nigeria since Monday, August 10, as part of its 2026 Validation mission, concluded its assignment on Friday.
The three-member team, led by the Validation Advisor to the global EITI, Riley Zecca, signed off after holding a physical and virtual briefing with the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Musa Sarkin Adar, and other members of the NEITI Board, also known as the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG) late on Friday.
Throughout the weeklong Mission in Nigeria, the Validation Assessors undertook a comprehensive quality assurance assessment of Nigeria’s performance in the implementation of the EITI standards since the last validation exercise in 2023.
The assessment took the form of a series of consultative meetings with key stakeholders, including government institutions, representatives of the relevant oversighting committees of the National Assembly, extractive companies, civil society organisations, development partners, anti-corruption agencies, host communities, and the media, to gather diverse perspectives on Nigeria’s implementation of the EITI Standard and ongoing reforms in the country’s extractive sector.
Specifically, the Assessors met with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who is also the Chairman of the NEITI Board, George Akume, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), NEITI’s Inter-Ministerial Technical Team (IMTT), the Senate Committee on Public Account and other relevant Committees at the National Assembly, members of the civilian society groups involved in the EITI process led by their representative on the NEITI Board, Dr Erisa Danladi, as well as the Media Initiative for Transparency in Extractive Industries (MITEI), consisting representatives from different media houses reporting the extractive industries.
Meanwhile, the itinerary of the Assessors showed that they are scheduled to fly out of Abuja back to the EITI International Secretariat in Oslo, Norway on Sunday to continue with the final leg of their assignment, which is the collation of the draft validation report on their mission.
The draft of the report is expected to be sent to the NEITI Secretariat in September to enable Nigeria comment on the the overall assessment, which was based on established criteria in line with the EITI Standards and principles.
The final draft of the report would be a subject of deliberation by the global EITI Board during the forthcoming Global EITI Conference scheduled for October 5-9 in Brussels, Belgium, before the approval and official publication of the final Validation Report.
Validation is EITI’s independent quality assurance mechanism to assess implementing countries’ performance, in terms of progressive and impactful compliance and adherence to its stipulated standards and principles compliance to strengthen good governance in the management of oil, gas and mining sectors resources.
The exercise evaluates progress made in strengthening transparency, accountability and good governance in the management of oil, gas and mining resources, while identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.
The last time Nigeria underwent validation was in January 2023, under the 2019 EITI Standard. It was Nigeria’s fourth participation in the exercise since it became an implementing country of the EITI in 2004.
Based on the validation report, Nigeria achieved a moderate overall score of 72 points in implementing the EITI standards, with overall score reflecting an average of the three components of the EITI Validation, namely Stakeholder engagement (52.5 points out of 100), 71.5 points out of 100 for Transparency, and 92 points out of 100 for Outcomes and impact.
