The current provision of 2.5 percent as host community trust fund in the Petroleum Industry Bill should be reviewed upward to 10 percent, governors of the South-South region have demanded.
Ifeanyi Okowa, the Chairman of the South-South Governors Forum and Governor of Delta State, disclosed this after the governors’ meeting in Port Harcourt on Monday night.
“We took up the issue of the Petroleum Industry Bill which is already before the House and having compared notes with ourselves, we are of the view that while we welcome the Host Community Trust Fund, we do believe that the 2.5 per cent that is appropriated in that bill for the purpose of host community fund is inadequate.
“We have discussed with our people and collectively as leaders of the people in our various States and as leaders standing in on behalf of our people, we urge that the National Assembly should increase the provision in the host community fund from 2.5 percent to 10 percent in the best interest of our communities, in the best interest of our nation,” Okowa stated.
Appropriate compensation for host communities of oil companies operating in the oil-producing communities has been one of the contentious issues in the PIB, which has gone through various versions spanning different regimes of the National Assembly.
The state governors hinged their demand on the fact that, according to them, the communities play key roles in the surveillance of the nation’s oil facilities, including the pipeline network.
They believe that meeting the demands of the host communities will encourage them to see themselves as stakeholders in the industry and willing to be watchdogs on behalf of the Federal government, the States, and oil companies.
“And the peaceful environment that would be seen in the various oil communities would enable us to have greater production and a seamless production in which we do not have any form disruption in our oil productions going into the future,” the forum said.
