Esther Oluku
The federal government has reaffirmed it’s commitment to the implementation of the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Fund through enforcement of guidelines for registration and collation of receipts of remittances made by oil transporting ship owners and receivers through the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Speaking at the 7th Meeting of the Sub-Committees of the National Standing Committee (NSC) on International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Fund in Nigeria, the Secretary of the National Standing Committee, Mrs. Aishatu Jiddah, noted that since the inception of the meetings by the Sub-Committees, the deliberations of each plenary had yielded positive results.
According to her, the meetings have furthered “the review and approval of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) by the IOPC Fund Secretariat, developed an action plan for the SOP and facilitated the implementation of the terms of reference for the Sub Committees”.
Jiddah noted that the Sub-Committees have worked together with the NSC to domesticate action plans to strengthen the cause of the IOPC Fund locally.
In line with this mandate, Jiddah announced the fusion of two of the existing five subcommittees at the 7th plenary which held in Lagos on the 18th and 19th of May 2022 to aid effective delivery of it’s functions.
She said, “There was a directive from the Chairperson that the Sub-Committee on Identification of Receivers of Contributing Oil and the Sub-Committee on Compilation of Contributing Oil Reports should be merged. So instead of five Sub-Committees, we have four Sub-Committees.”
While reviewing progress on some commitments reached at the 6th meeting of the Sub-Committees, the Chairperson, Sub-Committee on Development of Pricing Index, Mrs. Oma Ofodile, opined that sensitisation of oil receiving organisations would culminate in mass registration and contribution towards the IOPC Fund. Ofodile also noted that Nigeria being one of the fourteen nations yet to send reports of her receipts to the IOPC Fund Secretariat is an indictment to her reputation as an oil receiving state.
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