All lease and license holders working in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry have been given a seven-day deadline by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to reveal the true proprietors of their businesses.
The commission ordered that the information to be revealed include the identify (ies) of the beneficial owner(s), the level of ownership, and specifics of how control is exerted in the directive that was signed by its Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe.
He emphasized that the commission receives a complete list of the actual owners of their businesses.
The newly issued directive of NUPRC was marked, “Notification No. 1 to All Licence and Lease Holders in Nigeria on the Requirement for Submission of Beneficial Ownership Information.”
The action followed the recent publication of a beneficiary ownership register by the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Recently, Komolafe praised NEITI’s initiatives to advance an open and accountable system for the management of extractive resources, noting that NEITI and NUPRC shared a similar vision for transparency in Nigeria’s energy sector.
Komolafe claims that the NUPRC is totally dedicated to cooperating with NEITI to strengthen Nigeria’s implementation of contract transparency and beneficial ownership declarations.
According to Komolafe, “At the NUPRC, we are implementing the beneficial ownership reporting system, as it is a statutory requirement, which demands full disclosure of beneficial ownership information.
“The commission is engaging the oil and companies to ensure their mandatory compliance.”
The most recent notice from NUPRC stated that those expected to comply with the directive include, among others, persons with significant control of at least 5% of the shares and directly or indirectly holding the same percentage of voting rights. It also added that the significant persons were those who otherwise had the right to exercise, or actually did exercise, significant influence or control over a relevant person.
NUPRC said, “The commission hereby requires all entities that apply for or hold a participating interest in an exploration or production oil and gas licence, lease or contract to provide information of their owners, including the identity(ies) of their beneficial owner(s), the level of ownership and details about how that ownership or control is exerted.
“Accordingly, all relevant persons are hereby required to provide the information of persons with significant control over them: A person with significant control means any person directly or indirectly holding at least five per cent of the shares or interest in a relevant person.
“Or a (person) directly or indirectly holding at least 5 per cent of the voting rights in a relevant person; and directly or indirectly holding the right to appoint or remove a majority of the directors or partners in a relevant person.”
The beneficial ownership declaration form was supplied with the notification and was to be used by those who were affected.
