Oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria remitted $6.755 billion and N1.529 trillion to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) between 2021 and 2025 as statutory contributions.
The disclosure was made during an investigative hearing by the Senate Public Accounts Committee on the audit reports of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) covering the 2021 to 2023 period.
Although the hearing focused on the NEITI audit reports, the NDDC presented an updated report containing contributions made by oil and gas companies up to 2025.
The contributions represent the statutory three per cent levy payable by oil and gas companies to fund development projects and environmental interventions in the Niger Delta region.
The NDDC, however, said oil and gas companies still owed the commission $290 million and N163 billion in outstanding statutory contributions for the period under review.
The commission’s Managing Director, Samuel Ogbuku, was represented at the hearing by its Executive Director of Corporate Services, Ifedayo Abegunde, who led the NDDC delegation.
The figures were presented as the Senate committee continued its investigation into audit queries raised by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation concerning the operations of Nigeria’s extractive industries.
The committee, chaired by Sen. Ibrahim Dankwambo, is examining issues arising from the NEITI audit reports covering the 2021 to 2023 period.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Shehu, disclosed that Nigeria spent N1.16 trillion on fuel subsidy in 2021.
Shehu also said another N1.20 trillion was deducted from the Federation’s crude oil sales proceeds during the same period.
According to him, the deductions constituted a significant drain on public finances.
He listed other deductions from crude oil revenue as N16.20 billion for crude and petroleum product losses, N22.05 billion for pipeline repairs and N6.75 billion for strategic stock holding.
Shehu also raised concerns over the calculation of the 13 per cent derivation fund, arguing that the current method undermined the constitutional objective of the derivation policy.
He called for a review of the methodology to ensure that producing states receive derivation revenues in line with the intent of the constitutional provision.
