Stakeholders on the board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) have expressed their resolve to monitor and track the utilisation of some special intervention funds created by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 in line with the mandate of the agency to entrench transparency and accountability in the utilisation of proceeds from the country’s extractive sectors.
Those special funds include the 30 percent Frontier Exploration Fund, which is managed and used by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to boost oil and gas exploration activities in the frontier basins.
The funds also included the 3 per cent Host Community Development Fund (HCDF), which is derived from 3 per cent of the total operating expenditure (OPEX) of exploration and production companies in the preceding year.
It is to be managed by the Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) in each host community to carry out critical developmental projects in the communities.
Speaking to THISDAY, the representative of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on NEITI, Erisa Danladi, said the 6th board has taken those funds as part of the things they would be beaming their searchlight on to monitor their utilisation.
