The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have resolved to establish a joint coordination committee to identify, document and disclose the real owners of Nigeria’s oil, gas and mining assets.
The decisions were taken at a meeting between the management of the two agencies held in Abuja, a statement by NEITI said on Monday.
Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya, Orji said: “The exclusion of information about our natural resources was at a huge cost to the Nigerian economy and affected Nigeria’s optimisation of revenues from its natural resource wealth. With your cooperation and reputation, we can help our government fight the resource course which is the reason the EITI and NEITI exist.
“The knowledge reposed 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 realised.”
The Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, pledged CAC’s irrevocable commitment to partner with NEITI towards meeting the compliance standards set by the global EITI in beneficial ownership reporting.
“The CAC is already working on a comprehensive beneficial ownership register that will be a global standard.”
He disclosed that since January 3, 2021, all companies registering to do business in Nigeria were required to disclose the identity of their real owners.
“This information became a requirement by the CAC for purposes of beneficial ownership information in public interest for anyone who needs it and at no cost to other government agencies.”
