A joint coordination committee is working on a plan that will reveal the identity of the real owners of oil, gas and mining assets in the country.
The committee to be established by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), will also create a database of oil assets owners.
In a statement made available to journalists, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji noted that the nation’s policy on the global extractive industries transparency initiative empowered it to do that.
The statement which was signed by Obiageli Onuorah, Head, Communications, and Advocacy stated that the decisions were taken at a meeting between the management of the two agencies held in Abuja on Sunday.
Dr. Orji described the CAC as a dependable ally in Nigeria’s implementation of the global EITI’s beneficial ownership disclosure requirements.
“The CAC has the institutional responsibility of keeping the register of all companies doing business in Nigeria while NEITI sits on information and data on oil assets, key players and investors in the extractive industries. We therefore need each other to build a consolidated data base on beneficial ownership disclosures.
“The knowledge reposited in the two agencies makes it important for us to work together to ensure that the commitment made by Nigeria to the international community on effective implementation of Beneficial Ownership in the extractive industry is realized,” he stated.
The NEITI Executive Secretary also explained that when information on who owns what in Nigeria is documented and made public, it will help to check illicit financial flows, terrorism financing, tax evasion and diversion of government revenues.
“The exclusion of information about our natural resources was at a huge cost to the Nigerian economy and affected Nigeria’s optimization of revenues from its natural resource wealth.
Also, NEITI and CAC agreed to expand collaboration as key members of Open Government Partnership (OGP) on ease of doing business and extractive revenues governance, transparency and accountability.
