According to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), despite generating revenue from crude oil export from 2005 to 2015, Nigeria recorded less than 0.5 per cent savings in its Excess Crude Account (ECA).The agency in a document on its on Monday, last week said there was almost no net addition to the domestic ECA for eleven (11) years.
It noted that in seven out of the eleven years (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2015) there were “unusual” withdrawals, which represented the entire outflow of one hundred percent (100%) from the domestic ECA.
NEITI noted that it is clear therefore that Nigeria has no prudent and robust oil revenue savings scheme that can tie it over expected volatility of oil prices and the eventual depletion of its oil reserves in 38 years; neither does it have a strong mechanism for promoting inter-generational equity.
The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Waziri Adio, recently emphasized the need to ensure constant savings whether oil prices are high or low and urged the Federal Government and the states to seek speedy resolution at the supreme court of the case on the constitutionality of remittances to the ECA and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).
