By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja

An independent review has placed Nigeria top in the implementation of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) globally.

Nigeria won the global award announced on Wednesday in Seoul, South Korea, at the opening ceremony of the Summit of OGP member countries. Nigeria beat other countries in Africa and the Middle East that are implementing the OGP.

The review tracked and assessed milestones achieved by the Nigerian government in setting up a Beneficial Ownership registry to end anonymous companies in the country, a statement by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has said.

NEITI led the Extractive Industries Thematic Group that implemented Beneficial Ownership disclosures as part of President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s commitment to Open Government Partnership.

Other agencies that worked with NEITI were the NNPC, the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the Corporate Affairs Commission, and the Nigerian Civil Society representatives.

Speaking on the award, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, expressed delight that the international community was beginning to assess Nigeria efforts at fighting corruption and deepening its democracy.

Dr Orji described the award as impressive and most encouraging, considering the political will and enormous resources the government has deployed to reposition the extractive industry to benefit all Nigerians. 

He also complimented other sister agencies that worked with NEITI, the OGP National Steering Committee and the civil society for the collective success.

According to him, “This Award is quite timely. We received the news here in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt venue of the ongoing Conference of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, with excitement. Nigeria is leading four other countries to introduce a Resolution that will recognize and use Beneficial Ownership information and data as an empirical tool in the recovery of stolen assets from developing countries. 

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“The OGP Award has strengthened our position as we prepare to submit Nigeria led draft resolution to the UN Conference of State Parties here in Egypt. I am here with the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chairmen of the EFCC and ICPC, Registrar General of CAC and our Ambassador here in Egypt”.

He recalled that “Nigeria’s journey to beneficial ownership disclosure followed a trajectory. In December 2019, NEITI created a Beneficial Ownership Register for extractive industries companies and became the first in Africa to have such a register. In 2020 the Companies and Allied Matters Act was amended and mandated the CAC to establish and collect information on the real owners of all companies in a business in Nigeria.

“In 2021, Nigeria enacted the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and made copious provisions for beneficial ownership disclosures. Nigeria is also among nine the global EITI implementing countries of the Opening Extractives initiative”, he added.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, in her congratulatory message to Nigerians noted that establishing a beneficial ownership register has helped Nigeria “track, reduce and arrest corrupt practices that are undertaken either by companies or beneficial owners of companies”.

On his part, Chief Executive Officer of Open Government Partnership, Sanjay Pradhan, affirms that the OGP platform seeks to ensure that governments and civil society commitments on specific reform programmes are turned into concrete actions.

Besides Nigeria, other recipients were Tunisia and Ghana, which bagged the second and third places for the Right to Information and Open Data Initiative.

The OGP is celebrating its 10th anniversary, showcasing how government and civil society partnerships have brought ambitious reforms and more robust results. Over the past decade, 78 countries have engendered more than 4,500 reforms between governments and civil society. 

Two thousand of these were reviewed independently, out of which over 20 per cent were adjudged to have made governments significantly more open. Among the reforms that the OGP considered is Nigeria’s Beneficial Ownership Transparency programme, which came tops. 

Vanguard News Nigeria