The Nigeria Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has unveiled two documents designed to push the
boundaries of implementation of transparency and accountability in the
extractive industries in Nigeria.
The first document is the Roadmap on Beneficial Ownership
disclosure. It seeks to outline Nigeria’s strategy towards the implementation
and fulfillment of Requirement 2.5 of the EITI standard which among other
things demands public disclosures of the real owners of oil, gas and mining companies
that operate in Nigeria.
The roadmap provides comprehensive plans and actions designed
to guide Nigeria in its implementation of beneficial ownership disclosure in
the extractive industries.
The strategy document also identified the institutional frameworks
that are required for effective implementation of ownership transparency,
clarity on definition of beneficial owners and explanation on thresholds for
public disclosure required in the process.
The document also defined those who fall into the category of
Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and the reporting obligations expected of
them as well as the challenges that may
be encountered during the process of
data collection, data quality assurance, accessibility and timeliness.
The plan also identified the need for capacity building for
all stakeholders expected to be involved in the implementation given the
complexity of the extractive industries in Nigeria and highlighted the need for
public education and enlightenment on the principles and benefits of Beneficial
Ownership disclosures.
The roadmap apart from fulfilling the EITI
requirement, is also in line with the commitment made by President Muhammadu
Buhari at the London anti-corruption summit where he pledged to establish a
publicly accessible register of all companies operating in Nigeria.
In Mr. President’s words, “we welcome the new 2016 EITI
Standard, in particular, the requirements on beneficial ownership and the sale
of the government’s share of production”.
The President also declared that “Nigeria will establish a transparent
central register of foreign companies bidding on public contracts and buying
property. We welcome the proposal by developed countries to work together to
improve the access of developing countries to beneficial ownership information
for use in public contracting”, President Buhari declared.
The EITI standards require all implementing countries to
publish their Beneficial Ownership
Roadmap by January 2017 and commence full implementation by January 2020.
The process adopted in the development of the roadmap was
consultative, robust and consistent with the multi-stakeholders approach of the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) which involves civil
society, media, extractive companies, relevant government agencies and
development partners.
In a similar development, NEITI has unveiled an open data
policy in keeping with the realization that the world is currently witnessing a
global shift towards making data open
and accessible. This is also in compliance with the EITI Standards and the
global shift towards open data availability which is largely attributed to
technological advancement and increasing demand for transparency and
accountability by citizens.
Under the open data policy released by NEITI, information and
data contained in its industry audits would be made publicly available and
accessible in a reusable format.
The policy defined Open data as data that is in the public
domain or ought to be in the public domain. The definition also provides that
such data should be accessible, freely used at no cost and can be shared and
built upon by anyone.
The open data policy also requires that the data be used
anywhere and for any purpose without restrictions from copyright, patent or
other control mechanism and must also be expressly excluded by the provisions
of the laws of Nigeria.
This requires making the data convenient, modifiable in open
format, easily retrievable, indexed, and well organized. The open data policy
also represents the framework for the implementation of the global drive for
use of open data to pursue reforms, enthrone transparency and accountability
especially in the extractive sector of the Nigerian economy.
The open data policy is expected not only to create a solid
foundation for open data disclosures in the extractive sector, but has the
potential for implementation in other sectors of the economy.
NEITI therefore appeals to the media, civil society,
parliamentarians and citizens to avail themselves of the two policy documents
and use them as tools for public education, information dissemination and
enlightenment on governance issues in the extractive industry in Nigeria.
Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji
Director, Communications
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