The board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has rejected Nigeria’s request for a 12-month extension of its validation exercise, ordering the process to proceed as scheduled on July 1, 2026, after finding that the reasons advanced by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative did not constitute exceptional circumstances under the board’s criteria.
NEITI, through the National Stakeholders Working Group, had argued that budgetary constraints and fiscal deficits had delayed funding for the procurement of an Independent Administrator to produce the country’s 2024 EITI Report, and that the report would not be ready until October 2026. The EITI board rejected this argument, saying the issues of resource allocation and budgetary constraints were within the control of the government to address and that the 2023 EITI Report was a sufficiently current basis for the validation exercise.
The board also warned that postponing the validation to 2027 would create additional risks, noting that elections expected early that year would likely lead to the dissolution and reconstitution of the multi-stakeholder group, causing disruption and delays. It said the current conditions in Nigeria were favorable for proceeding, with a functioning multi-stakeholder group, a reconstituted NSWG, regular implementation activities, and a secretariat with more than 100 staff members.
The EITI validation is the organization’s quality assurance mechanism to assess a member country’s compliance with its transparency standards, held every two to four years. Countries receive a score out of 100 across six progress categories and risk temporary suspension for a poor score or delisting for a very poor score or failure to progress in two consecutive assessments.
Nigeria’s upcoming validation is particularly significant because the country was directed in its previous assessment to address shortcomings relating to stakeholder engagement, contract and license disclosures, beneficial ownership reporting, state participation, subnational transfers, and other transparency measures.
