‘Transparency in extractives critical for Africa’

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is critical for ensuring contract transparency and promoting sustainable exploitation of natural resources, Mr. N’Dri Koffi, President of the EITI in Côte d’Ivoire, has said.

“Contract transparency is essential not only for the purpose of tracking revenue streams but also for ensuring the sustainable exploitation of natural resources.

“If the EITI is not in place, there would be diversion of oil revenues. So it is mainly there to check the proper use of revenues accruing from the oil and gas industry.” 

Mr. Koffi was speaking to Ghanaian journalists who were in Abidjan on an oil and gas training trip organised by the International Institute for ICT Journalism (Penplusbytes) in collaboration with the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI). 

The trip was in connection with the “Strengthening Media Oversight of Extractive Industries” project that seeks to expose journalists to issues in the oil, gas and mining industries.

Côte d’Ivoire, which started oil production in 1993, became an EITI candidate in May 2008 and has made it mandatory for all petroleum companies operating in that country to go through the initiative.

Since the EITI was introduced there has been much transparency in the oil sector, Mr. Koffi said.

“The country compiles its reports on the industry on a quarterly basis, which are later submitted to the EITI Secretariat that in turn verifies and audits the report for dissemination to the general public and other international bodies like the IMF,” he said.

Ghana signed on to the EITI in the mining sector in 2003 in a bid to improve the management of revenues in the sector for long-term economic growth, sustainable development and poverty- reduction.

The initiative, which seeks full publication and verification of company payments and government revenues in the mining sector, has since been extended to the oil and gas sector following the discovery of the Jubilee Field in 2007.

Presently, the country is seeking to give legal backing to the EITI and has prepared a draft bill for that purpose. The bill will complement existing legislation in the natural-resources sector at a time of increased concerns about transparency and accountability of both companies and government.

According to Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, “the primary purpose of [Ghana’s] draft EITI bill is to provide the legal framework to enhance transparency and accountability in relation to receipts and payments in the natural-resources sector.” 

The draft bill will expand the scope of the current EITI to cover the entire natural-resources sector -- minerals, petroleum, forestry and fisheries. It also makes provision for disclosing the contents of extractive industry contracts that are negotiated and concluded between companies and the state.

Thirty-six countries worldwide have so far applied to the EITI and have become either candidates or compliant countries. Ghana became compliant a year ago while Cote d’Ivoire is a candidate.