Nigeria is facing mounting difficulty in mobilising the estimated $6 billion required for the clean-up of Ogoniland, despite decades of substantial oil and gas earnings, prompting a renewed push to attract donor funding from the international community.

Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) show that the country generated over $831.14 billion from oil and gas between 1999 and 2023.

The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), yesterday, in Abuja, admitted that funding the Ogoni remediation effort, one of the most ambitious environmental projects in Africa, remains a significant challenge.

The clean-up programme stems from recommendations by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which proposed a long-term funding plan of $1 billion every five years over a 30-year period, amounting to $6 billion.

However, more than a decade after the report, Nigeria is still struggling to fully mobilise even the initial $1 billion.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Trust Fund, Emmanuel Deeyah, acknowledged the funding gap, noting that while an initial pool of funds had been secured through contributions from the Federal Government and oil companies, a portion remains outstanding. Crucially, he added, there has been no commitment to a second tranche of funding.

This financing shortfall has forced a strategic shift as he disclosed that the agency is now actively engaging donor agencies, development partners, and the diplomatic community to secure both financial and technical support.

According to him, a high-level donor conference has been scheduled for later this month as part of efforts to scale up funding.

The development comes at a time when most international oil companies, which played killer roles in the pollution, are now divesting and moving away from the communities into the deepwater.

Stakeholders had noted that while Nigeria has earned vast revenues from hydrocarbons, translating this wealth into environmental remediation and sustainable development has remained elusive.

The Ogoni clean-up itself is rooted in decades of environmental degradation caused by oil exploration, as the protests in the region led the Federal Government to commission UNEP to conduct a scientific assessment, which confirmed widespread contamination, including the presence of benzene, a known carcinogen in groundwater.

Following acceptance of the UNEP report, the government established the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project in 2016 to implement the clean-up and restore livelihoods in affected communities.

Providing an update, HYPREP Project Coordinator Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, said progress has been made across several components of the programme, although funding constraints remain a key limitation.

He disclosed that over 130 projects have either been completed or are ongoing, spanning environmental remediation, potable water provision, healthcare access, and infrastructure development, including a proposed power project and a Centre of Excellence for environmental restoration.

Meanwhile, youths in the Niger Delta pipeline communities have been urged to shun all forms of vices and ensure peaceful coexistence to enhance oil production for the benefit of the country and host communities.

This is as 3,000 women from pipeline host communities in the region received empowerment from the Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), the firm responsible for protecting the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) and Eastern Gas Network (EGN).

The beneficiaries were drawn from 216 communities across Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo, and Abia States.

The women received cheques ranging from N250,000 to N1 million under an empowerment scheme aimed at boosting their businesses and improving their income.