Oil and Gas Host Communities Make Fresh Demands to HCDT Regulation Amendments
By Ekemini Simon
Host Communities, Civil Society Organisations and the Media in Akwa Ibom State, Rivers State and Delta State have called on the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to consider in their ongoing amendments the need for the trust to have 20 – 30 percent of Gender Equity and Social Inclusion in the Board of Trustees (BoT), Management Committee and Advisory Committee.
They also recommended that NUPRC in its amendment should provide for the BoT of the trust to hold quarterly town hall meetings to sensitize their own people on their programmes and projects.
The Host Communities asked NUPRC to ensure that the regulation provides for the Trust to publish the first year’s budgets and contracts/projects awarded to all public facilities in host communities and also make provision of clarity for transparency in the determination of 3 percent Operating Expenditure of settlors due to communities.
The host communities, media and CSOs working on accountability and transparency in the extractive sector made the call at a sensitisation on strengthening civic actors’ awareness and capacity for local engagement on oil host community development in Uyo on September 14, 2023, organised by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in collaboration with Accountability in the Extractive Sector (AES) and the Niger Delta Open Government Observatory (NOGO) under the Nigeria Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) project implemented by Palladium and funded by USAID.
The participants called on NUPRC to fast track the deployment of pending modules to facilitate settlor, host community and civil society engagement of the Host Comply digital platform.
They asked NUPRC to acknowledge and consider recommendations made by the host communities to advance host community interests.
The gathering called on the CSOs to request audience with the NUPRC towards seeking collaborative opportunities for wider sensitization and advancing the recommendations made at the workshop, including but not limited to the establishment of a third-party monitoring body that will monitor and evaluate ongoing processes and activities conducted in host communities, and improved transparency for both the settlors and the trust managers.
The participants urged the CSOs to organise town hall meetings, media engagement and step-down training to educate host communities they work with and utilize desk reviews on the peculiar limitations to the implementation of the PIA host community development provisions as evidence base to inform needed advocacy.
Media participants were called upon to use the information at their disposal to inform the host communities on PIA regulations and processes, as well as amplify key issues of concern for adequate responses by the regulators and government.
Offering insight into the implementation of HCDT so far, Omalade Awah, a Manager at NUPRC said out of 261 operational oil mining licenses only 130 applications have been received, 97 Trust approved, 81 incorporated and only 38 funded.
Earlier, Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani commended NUPRC for its efforts towards the realisation of the goals of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 as it pertains to Host community interests.
Represented by the Program Manager, Environment and Conservation of Nature program, CISLAC, Mr. Chinedu Bassey, he said NUPRC has pushed for the realisation of its goals through the release of the Petroleum Host Community Development Trust (PHCDT) regulations and Template and Procedural guidelines, phased consultations towards strengthening the regulations and the recent launch of the ‘HostComply” for streamlining the reporting of environmental, social and governance management.