What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

NEITI is known as the chief auditor of all extractive industries. My background as an accountant and an auditor will greatly impact the role that we play there. It is about transparency and accountability. The way we operate here may be a little bit different from what is obtained in the United States.

How do you intend to balance this difference?

Well, I don’t really see much difference in the way we operate. Accounting is accounting, finance is finance. So, it is just common sense. All you need to do is make sure you comply with the rules and regulations. If there is any reason for anyone not to adhere to the rules and regulations, there will be enforcement. Once you have identified that you have not been complying with the law, we will enforce to make you adhere to the rules and regulations.

How do you think the issue of revenue leakages could be addressed in the extractive industry?

Find a way to checkmate loopholes and leakages. One of the things that I will say to strengthen accountability is to quickly have a timely policy decision on the extractive industry to meet the needs of our people. We need a timely policy decision to address that issue. Another thing that we need to do, as I have mentioned earlier, is to strictly enforce compliance. All investors, mining organisations, and corporations must register with the Mining Cadastre Office, the MCO. We need to make sure we have adequate data. We have to do data gathering. I know NEITI has a lot of data. They have done a lot of collection in terms of data, and that can be seen on their webpage. They have done a very good job with data collection, but there is more to what we can do. More importantly, from the zonal offices.

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