The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has said Nigeria earned over N70 trillion from oil between 1999 and 2014 without saving.

It therefore urged the Federal Government to immediately develop a saving plan to prevent the culture of wastefulness, which it noted was responsible for the abuse of funds in the past.

Making the disclosure yesterday, NEITI’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Waziri Adio, told the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs during an oversight visit to his office that this was responsible for the economic recession the country was experiencing.
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He added that unless Nigeria developed a prudent way of spending, the country might be in for very rougher times in the coming years.

He added that it was unfortunate and unthinkable that despite the huge earnings recorded from crude oil sales over the years, Nigeria was unable to account for at least $100 billion in the excess crude account.

Adio said: “Let me inform the committee that we discovered that between 1999 and 2014, the country spent over N70 trillion it received from oil and gas alone. That is a whole lot of money. And what is sad is that it was spent without the country having anything to show for it. I think it is quite unfortunate.”