August 19, (THEWILL) –
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has said that International oil companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria owe the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) more than $4 billion.
Akpabio spoke on Thursday at the weekly ministerial Press Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the State House, Abuja.
He said the IOCs were required to provide 3 percent of their annual budgets to the commission as their contribution to its funding, but none of the IOCs had paid so far.
“All the international oil companies are owing their statutory contribution to NDDC running into over $4 billion for many years and efforts are ongoing to recoup the money,” he said.
Akpabio also said the NDDC on its part was owing contractors about N3 trillion, noting however that not all contracts awarded with costs can be regarded as debt.
He however, stated that the over N600 billion of emergency contracts that had been awarded had not been implemented and cannot therefore be regarded as NDDC debt.
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