Oil Production: Kogi Wants 13% Derivation Fund Like Other Oil States

Posted by Enitan Felicia Business News, Featured, Latest Headlines Thursday, October 24th, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Kogi State governor, Usman Ododo, has called for the payment of 13 percent derivation from the federation account considering the status of the state as an oil-producing state.

Ododo stated this when he visited the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, at his office on Thursday in Abuja saying that Kogi had discovered crude oil in commercial quantity in the Olamaboro Local Government Area of the state.

However, he lamented that despite the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in the state, the state is yet to get the 13 per cent derivation and other benefits given to other oil-producing states in the country.

Ododo said: “We are aware that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has a lot to do to develop the frontier basin.

“There are funds to develop it. We are happy with our colleagues in the South-South when they are going home with tons of money, while we go home with little. We are happy for them, but we hope to join them.

“Some people call an oil-producing state. Yes, we are an oil-producing state, but are you producing? No. Because of insecurity. We have fought and ensured there is peace in the area. Once there is peace, then people can come in to invest.

“As a state, we can’t do it alone. We need you to help us so that the states can fully utilise what God has given us. It’s on that note that that is the major one that you need to help us. Some people believe we earn 13 per cent. It’s not monthly.

“We only received it once, and that was N7.8m. As a government, we have to be proud that we are also oil producing but nothing is coming.

“And people believe if you are oil producing and nothing is coming, as a governor, what are you going to do? As a state, we are ready to have a state-owned oil block. “Our sons and daughters are in that industry. They are ready to work with us as long as we put in place the right mechanism.”

It is worth mentioning that oil producing states in the country get 13 per cent derivation as reward for a transfer scheme as stipulated in Section 162, Sub-section 2 of the Nigerian Constitution.

States getting this privilege include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Imo