The International Press Centre in conjunction with the Public Affairs Department of the US Consulate General in Lagos on Thursday held a programme as part of its media and transparency watch project tagged: “Transparency issues in the extraction sector: the missing link in media report.”
Presenting the paper was Dr. Orji Ogbonaya Orji, a key player in Nigeria’s extraction sector.
Orji listed Saudi Arabia and Norway among many countries where mining has made a great turn around in the economy.
He said on the other hand, the industry in some places has been their worst nightmare because it has led to pollution, corruption and has turned out into very low economic value, adding: “And one can’t help but ask: ‘What went wrong?’
“Transparency issue as a key factor that has killed the extraction industries in great places, with Nigeria as a reference.”
For instance, he said, challenges in revenue management had killed the nation’s industries as revenue from the point of payment to the point of remittance never had a style of record tracking, leading to under assessment and under paying of companies due to contested pricing methodology.
Orji stated that the total loss to the Federation Account due to Offshore Processing Arrangement, crude swap and oil theft was in excess of $5.96 billion.
He also said copulation of volume/quantity of extracts has from time been a great issue because of the absence of metering infrastructure and vandalism among other challenges, adding that this is further fuelled by Governments poor book keeping.
Orji expressed with the restructuring of the industry by government, adding that by the time the process ends, there will be a regulatory frame work and conflict of roles of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, lack of independence of the Department of Petroleum Resources, delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, allocation and award of licences, non disclosure of process, contract transparency challenges, Poor disclosure of contract and lack of competition will all be things of the past.
While answering a question on technological development during the interactive session, Orji said human capital development is the only solution to the knowledge gap in the adaptation of technology as everything has a speedy transformation, “and to catch up, we need to upgrade on the knowledge intake part.”
He said the extraction industry is a very big and complex part of the economy and advised that before journalists write, they must be well informed.
He said the only way they can be well informed is by getting adequate training.
Orji explained that terms in the industry must be familiar to the writer and if not, how can he pass that information across to the reader.
He added: “More so, in the case of the extraction industries, trainings are inevitable, both sponsored and personal.”
Orji advised self development if sponsored trainings are not forthcoming.