Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Act enacted

In 2007, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua signed the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Act into law, giving legal foundation to an organization that had operated since 2004. The Act transformed NEITI from a voluntary initiative under President Obasanjo into a statutory body with legal powers to audit oil, gas, and mining revenues. This made Nigeria one of the first countries to give its EITI implementation legal backing, moving beyond the voluntary compliance framework of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

The push for transparency in Nigeria's oil sector had grown throughout the early 2000s amid persistent questions about revenue management and the resource curse affecting oil-rich developing nations. Civil society organizations, international partners, and reform-minded officials had advocated for greater accountability in how petroleum revenues were collected, reported, and distributed among federal, state, and local governments. The voluntary NEITI established in 2004 had begun conducting audits, but lacked enforcement powers and faced resistance from some industry players and government agencies.