Imo Losing Billions Through Oil Production Misreporting, Uzodimma Tells RMFAC

Governor Hope Uzodimma has called on the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC) to urgently tackle longstanding structural and technical challenges affecting Nigeria’s revenue generation and allocation system, warning that persistent distortions in production data are undermining fairness in the distribution of national resources.

The Governor made the call on Wednesday at the Government House, Owerri, while receiving the Chairman of RMFAC, Dr. Mohammed Bello Shehu and members of the commission who were in Imo State as part of a nationwide revenue data verification exercise currently being conducted across the South-East geopolitical zone.

Uzodimma described the exercise as a significant step towards correcting longstanding anomalies in Nigeria’s revenue allocation framework, noting that the credibility of the process would depend largely on transparency, accuracy and accountability.

The Governor alleged that Imo State has suffered considerable economic setbacks over the years due to inaccurate reporting of crude oil and gas production figures, unresolved boundary disputes, inadequate regulatory oversight and poor metering systems within the oil and gas sector.

According to him, some oil-producing facilities and production activities located within Imo State have either been under-reported or wrongly attributed to neighbouring states, resulting in substantial revenue losses that should ordinarily accrue to the state.

“We have suffered great injustice occasioned by the non-reporting of actual crude oil and gas production from Imo State. Oil fields located within our local government areas are sometimes attributed to communities in other states,” Uzodimma stated.

He maintained that the challenge extends beyond Imo State, arguing that Nigeria as a whole may be losing significant revenue due to inefficiencies in monitoring, measurement and production tracking within the petroleum industry.

The Governor stressed the need for the deployment of modern technology and globally accepted best practices to improve transparency and accuracy in the collection of production data across the sector.

Uzodimma, who chairs the Crude Oil Committee of the National Economic Council (NEC) urged RMFAC to ensure that all crude oil, gas and condensate production from Imo State is properly captured in official records to guarantee equitable revenue allocation.

He reiterated the readiness of the Imo State Government to cooperate fully with the commission throughout the verification process, emphasizing that the state was only seeking what is constitutionally due to it.

“Our demand is simple. We want an accurate representation of what is produced within our territory so that allocations are based on verifiable facts and not assumptions,” he said.

Earlier, RMFAC Chairman, Dr. Mohammed Bello Shehu, explained that the nationwide verification exercise is currently in its fourth phase and is being carried out across the South-East after similar exercises were completed in three other geopolitical zones.

According to him, the last nationwide verification of this magnitude was conducted approximately a decade ago, making the current exercise critical to the review of Nigeria’s revenue allocation formula.

Shehu said the objective of the exercise is to generate updated, credible and verifiable data that will support ongoing efforts to review the revenue-sharing formula in line with constitutional requirements and prevailing economic realities.

He assured stakeholders that the exercise would be conducted professionally and transparently, adding that trained technical teams had been deployed to ensure the integrity of the process and the reliability of its findings.

The RMFAC chairman also commended the Imo State Government for its cooperation and support, expressing optimism that the outcome of the exercise would contribute significantly to a more equitable and realistic revenue allocation system for the country.

He noted that the review would take into account current demographic, economic and production realities across the federation, ensuring that states receive allocations that more accurately reflect their contributions and circumstances.