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Issues surrounding the real ownership of companies and entities operating in the extractive industry in Nigeria, as well as contract transparency, were the subject of a workshop organized by a non-governmental organization, Policy Alert, in Port Harcourt recently.
The one-day Extractive Sector Data Journalism Workshop for investigative reporters across Delta, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Rivers states, organized by Policy Alert in conjunction with OSIWA, focused on training journalists on gathering data through investigative reporting in the extractive sector in Nigeria.
Policy Alert’s executive director, Tijah Boton-Akpan, explained that the workshop is a product of the ‘WetinWeGain2’ project, which aims at putting citizens at the centre of beneficial ownership contract transparency reforms in Nigeria.
Bolton-Akpan noted the need to train journalists on the effective use of data journalism tools in their investigative report on the Nigerian extractives sector, while describing the project as one that seeks to push the stakes for the disclosure and uptake of extractive sector payments, beneficial ownership, contract details as well as information on other related reforms in Nigeria’s extractive sector as tools for more effective social accountability and improved community beneficiation.
According to a program release by Policy Alert, the group noted that in the course of their work on the initial #WetinWeGain campaign, they have found that “most stakeholders in extraction-affected communities do not understand current developments on beneficial ownership and contract transparency in the country, how their communities are implicated, how these new disclosures can improve their role as accountability actors, and the overall relationship between the governance of natural resources in their backyards, the resulting revenue flows to government, and the delivery of public services to their communities.
“Although these ongoing reforms have huge potential for transforming the way communities engage and how effectively they can access benefits from natural resources, current discussions on them have been limited to high-level policy spaces related to multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Open Government Partnership (OGP).
“This project seeks to generate evidence, create public awareness, strengthen demand-side capacity, especially at the grassroots, and influence effective implementation of these extractive sector reforms. The project will focus on four states in the Niger Delta – Cross River (mining), Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Delta (oil and gas). It is a follow-on project to our earlier work, #WetinWeGain, which we implemented in 2019-2020 in partnership with Publish What You Pay (PWYP-UK),” Policy Alert said.
Programme Officer, Extractives Energy and Climate Justice at Po1icy Alert, Mfon Gabriel, further explained that “Beneficial Ownership disclosure, which exposes conflict of interests among Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), derives from the need to trace criminals who hide their identities behind corporate structures to defraud the country through corruption, tax evasion, undue favouritism, money laundering and illicit financial flows. Until recently, it was nearly impossible to determine who the real owners of extractive investments in Nigeria are. This situation seriously undermines development for the country.
“A strong implementation of reforms on Beneficial Ownership Disclosure, Contract Transparency, and Mandatory Payments to Government reporting will strengthen accountability and transparency in Nigeria’s extractive sector and help government plug financial leakages and maximize receipts and rents from natural resources necessary for quality service delivery to citizens.”
Mr. Charles Mba, program lead at Dataphyte delivered one of the papers, on ‘Understanding Data on Extractives Payment, Beneficial Ownership and Contracts – What Journalist Needs to Know,’ at the event.
