The Connected Development (CODE) has called for the urgent review of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 to ensure that host communities benefit maximally from oil exploration.
The Executive Director of CODE, Mallam Hamzat Lawal, made the call on Thursday in Abuja at a media conference under the purview of the Power of Voices Project (PVP) and Oxfam Nigeria.
He said that the CODE had been engaging in impactful work in the extractive sector, especially in the oil-rich communities, including the introduction of women in the Community Development Committee (CDC) across oil-producing regions, noting that women now made up about 20 to 50 per cent of the committees where CODE had worked.
Lawal stated that they were calling for the review of the act because they found that the host communities were not getting the full gains of the explorations.
He noted that the PIA recommended the setting up of community trust funds with oil producing companies expected to remit a certain percentage into those accounts.
He explained that, “What we aim to achieve is to identify how the oil companies are supporting community members to set up these accounts for utilisation and disbursement. How is the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) using the public resources to ensure that people enjoy the dividends of the ongoing exploration of oil in the states?
