Solid Mineral States To Start Collecting Derivation Fund — NEITI

The Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) says solid mineral producing states will start collecting derivation fund from the Federal Government in May.

The NEITI Executive Secretary, Malam Haruna Sa’eed, made the disclosure at a roundtable with energy editors in Lagos.

Sa’eed said NEITI was disturbed by the existing arrangement by which solid mineral producing states were not receiving derivation fund like their oil producing counterparts.

“A situation whereby solid mineral producing states are not given derivation fund from the resources tapped from their land does not portray equity and fairness in the allocation of resources by the government,” he said.

Sa’eed said the development led NEITI to initiate a move to make government to see reason on the need to extend the gesture to the solid mineral producing states.

“Government should put those states into consideration in anything they are doing, most especially through the tax sharing formula and allocation of resources,’’ he said. According to him, the organisation is currently putting finishing touches to the collection of data from the mineral and oil and gas sectors of the economy.

Sa’eed said NEITI was facing some challenges, although it had made some progress in the oil and gas sector of the economy.

The Tide’s source reports that NEITI was inaugurated in February 2004 to promote transparency and accountability in the management of Nigeria’s oil, gas and mining revenues.