Transparency alone won’t resolve resource governance challenges – NRGI

The Natural Resource Governance Institute, (NRGI), a transparency watchdog, who only last month, published its 2017 Resource Governance Index, ‘a heat map for assessing the degree to which extractive sector is managed in a transparent and accountable manner’, has said transparency alone will not fix all the problems in resource governance.

Absence of transparency in resource governance in Nigeria, experts say is key reason for corruption in the extractive sector.

Crucial resource governance elements such as commodity sales, contracts and identification of beneficial owners in many cases remain out of public view stated a panel that discussed NRGI Index in London last month.

“This isn’t just something for governments and citizens to focus on. Mining companies, for example, can also benefit from good resource governance, since they make long-term investments and must secure trust by local communities by operating sustainably,” said the transparency group in a blog post.

NRGI is recommending in addition to transparency, six key actions including:

Focus on implementation

Strengthen the implementation of laws and regulations in extractives—particularly in areas related to the environment, local communities and subnational revenue sharing.

Continue to open governments

Shed light on the true beneficial owners of companies, the commercial interests of officials and their associates, the deals governments make, and the detailed project-level payments companies make to governments.

Bolster state-owned enterprise governance

Strengthen the regulation and disclosure of oil sales. Establish independent governing boards; make appointments according to well-defined, meritocratic processes; and emphasize technical expertise rather than political patronage.

Protect civic space and combat corruption

Open civic space where citizens and journalists lack freedoms to speak up and hold their governments to account. Strengthen rule of law, regulatory quality and corruption control so that laws specific to the extractives sector will have impact in practice.

Strengthen global norms and institutions

Strengthen the implementation of laws and regulations in extractives—particularly in areas related to the environment, local communities and subnational revenue sharing.

Use data to drive reform

Assess the quality of resource governance and use data to improve institutions, policies and practices. Develop institutional systems providing regular and timely gathering, analysis and dissemination of key data in resource-rich countries. Release public information about the resource sector in line with the Open Data Charter standards.

The NRGI index provides a useful feedback to regulators regarding the perception of their extractive sectors but this is often lost on policy makers especially in developing countries like Nigeria because of a deep, system malaise – corruption.

Nigeria measures poorly on all the indexes at measuring good resource governance.

“One of the objectives that we have set for ourselves is to ensure that we are transparent and able to handle our resources well”, Yemi Osinbajo, Acting President told a delegation from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, (NEITI), last year, “if we (as a nation) had handled our resources better, with transparency, and good governance, we would not find ourselves were we are now.”

Two years into this administration, the recent NRGI report ranks Nigeria 55th out of 89 countries who manage their resources well. Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account, a fund to save oil income above the year’s benchmark, is rated as one of the world’s worst managed accounts.

Osinbajo told the NEITI delegation that as a nation, “we have learnt our lesson,” and that going forward the government will work transparently and generate more revenues, not much seems to be happening on that front.

ISAAC ANYAOGU