Group seeks allocation of 1% of 3% PIA for women empowerment

The Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group (NDEBUMOG) has called for the inclusion of women in the implementation framework of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

The group also recommended that 1% of the 3% Operating Expenditure of Oil and Gas Companies, should be allocated to women empowerment across host communities development trusts, projects, programs and activities.

The ground said that involvement of women in the implementation of the PIA, will go a long way in achieving extractive justice as envisaged by the law.

The group in a communique issued at the end of a one-day colloquium on Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) Host Communities Trust Fund at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, highlighted the importance of mainstreaming women into extractive frameworks, such as the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in Nigeria that encapsulated 3% host communities’ fund.

The Colloquium was part of activities for Women in Extractive (Africa) Campaign that is aimed at ensuring women get extractive justice across resource rich countries in Africa, including Nigeria.

According to the communique, part of the objectives of the colloquium was to advocate for gender inclusion and discuss strategies for overcoming barriers to women’s participation in the PIA’s 3% Host Communities Development Trust Funds implementation.

Some of the concerns raised by the group during the event include that although the PIA’s 3% Host Community Fund is a new development with mixed expectations and has thrown up contentious complexities, for instance, placing the burden for protection of the oil facilities on the shoulders of host communities, which could be sabotaged to frustrate host communities from benefiting from the 3%; that communities may not understand how extractive companies do their OPEX budget calculations to arrive at the amount of money they would declare and contribute to the fund as 3%.

“Many companies are often very secretive in calculating their operational expenses or profits. Communities have no choice but to accept whatever the companies may declare,” the group said.

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It also noted that PIA favours oil companies, the settlors, with more powers given to them in the law than the host communities, where they operate, with the powers to appoint people from host communities into the trust funds given to extractive companies

“The host communities have suffered greatly and are still suffering, as a result of extractive activities. Communities suffered from destruction of sources of livelihoods, environmental pollution and gas flaring, with effects on women, arguably, than men.

“There is no gender equity provisions in the PIA. Therefore, any future amendment to the law should correct this abnormally,” the communique said.

It also recommends that women should be among appointees into all the trust funds and other structures created by the PIA related to host communities trust funds. Women, privileged to be appointed, should remember plights of women in host communities, which should guide their technical and spiritual minds, that the National Assembly should take its oversight functions seriously, especially, with respect to the implementation of the 3% host communities’ fund, that traditional and community leaders, should be deliberate in creating roles for women throughout the PIA’s 3% structural chain and should encourage women to participate actively and that traditional rulers, as custodians of culture and tradition, should eliminate cultural norms that hinders women participation in the affairs of communities and emplace gender equity. Women across host communities deserve equal access to host communities’ funds.

Other recommendations include that women should be equipped with expertise to engage PIA’s processes, with men implored not to hijack all the opportunities, without consideration for women while 1% of the 3% Operating Expenditure of Oil and Gas Companies, should be allocated to women empowerment across host communities development trusts, projects, programs and activities.