Business

EITI Seeks Stakeholders Commitment To New Standards For The Sector

Published

3 years ago

June 17, 2023

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The Chair of the Board, Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Helen Clark, has called on the stakeholders in the sector to show commitment in strengthening transparency and the implementation of EITI goals.

She made the call during the launch of a new standard for the extractive industries at the just ended EITI 2023 global conference in Dakar, Senegal, themed “Transparency in Transition.”

At the event, hosted by the government of Senegal at the Centre International de Conférences Abdou Diouf, Diamniadio, and which drew participants from across the globe, she said that the new standard focuses on beneficial ownership transparency as a key anti-corruption mechanism in the extractive sector.

The key players in the industry deliberated on different areas bordering on key issues plaguing the institution in promoting transparency and accountability in the extractive industry, benefits of disclosing contract from energy in the extractive and energy transition.

Highlights of The New Standard

• A new requirement to request full disclosure of beneficial ownership by politically exposed persons (PEPs), regardless of their level of ownership.
This is intended to ensure that any amount of ownership by PEPs is publicly disclosed, and if implemented effectively, will act as an important mechanism to detect conflicts of interest, for example in the awarding and management of licences.

• The Standard now encourages EITI implementing countries to adopt a threshold of 10% or lower for beneficial ownership reporting.
In extractives, a high-risk sector for corruption, it has long been acknowledged that low thresholds are important for understanding ownership, for example of a small percentage stake in a very large extractives company.

• Requirements for information to be disclosed when state-owned enterprises (SOEs) hold beneficial ownership or control. The Standard now specifies the key information that is required: the name of the state, level of ownership, and detail about how ownership or control is exerted.

Given the prominent role of state-owned enterprises in the extractive sector, when combined with the EITI requirement on PEP disclosure, this represents a significant strengthening of the potential for the EITI Standard to deliver anti-corruption impact.

• Requirement 2.6e) also encourages SOEs to disclose beneficial ownership information for their agents, intermediaries, suppliers or contractors.

•The Standard now contains additional requirements to support the disclosure of full ownership chains where beneficial ownership is held indirectly.
This comprises a new requirement to disclose the legal ownership of entities as well as beneficial ownership, and is coupled with an encouragement for companies to disclose their ownership structure and full ownership chain.

• Finally, the Standard now encourages the EITI multi-stakeholder groups to review the comprehensiveness and reliability of beneficial ownership information disclosed through stock exchange filings for listed extractives companies, although it does not require any action if the data is not found to be reliable.
This remains an issue for actors wishing to understand ownership and control in listed companies in the extractive sector, as in practice there is wide variation in the availability of information from different stock exchanges.

Together, these new developments in the 2023 EITI Standard signal the continued strengthening of the ambitions of the EITI and its work to embed beneficial ownership transparency.

The transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy took the center stage of the discussion.

Business

Oil price jumps to $106, stocks drop on uncertainty over US-Iran talks

Crude prices rallied more than three percent on Thursday, with Brent crude above $106 per barrel and WTI around $93.

Published

1 hour ago

March 26, 2026

OCHEFA

11 Views

Oil prices jumped and equities slid Thursday as hopes for a peace deal between the US and Iran wavered after Tehran rejected Washington’s bid to wind down the nearly four-week war.

Markets had been buoyed this week by US President Donald Trump’s announcement that strikes targeting Iran’s energy infrastructure would be postponed, adding that the two sides were in peace talks.

But uncertainty over the talks and the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which around 20 percent of oil and liquefied natural gas passes — have cast a shadow over market sentiment.

“The market rollercoaster continues,” said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.

Crude prices rallied more than three percent on Thursday, with Brent crude above $106 per barrel and WTI around $93.

( VANGUARD)

Business

Niger Delta Chamber Investment Summit Targets $5bn, 500,000 Jobs

Published

2 days ago

March 25, 2026

OCHEFA

29 Views

Photo: Ambassador Idaere Gogo Ogan

‎The Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Trade, Mines and Agriculture (NDCCITMA) has unveiled plans to attract up to five billion dollars structured investments to the oil-producing region in five years.

The Chairman of NDCCITMA, Ambassador Idaere Gogo Ogan, made the disclosure at a pre-summit conference ahead of the Niger Delta Economic and Investment Summit in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

He said that the initiative would catalyse no fewer than 500,000 direct and indirect jobs as well as spur investments and create wealth.

‎He said the summit with the theme, “Driving Investment, Innovation, and Industrial Growth in the Niger Delta”, slated for Port Harcourt, would deliberate on investment mobilisation, enterprise growth, industrial expansion, and regional coordination.

Business

Dangote: Middle East crisis might take us back to ‘Work from home’ COVID era

In some countries today, what they’ve done is ask everybody to work from home because they cannot afford it.“I think in Indonesia, they only go to work four days a week.

Published

2 days ago

March 25, 2026

OCHEFA

31 Views

The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has expressed concerns about the ongoing Middle East crisis taking many countries back to the COVID19 era’s work from home.

Dangote stated this on Monday, after a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at his residence in Lagos.

While expressing concern about the economic impact of oil price uncertainty, Africa’s Richest man noted that Nigeria and other African countries might be forced to start working from home, just like the COVID19 era.

Dangote called for prayers and international intervention to end the conflict which has affected the price of fuel and other energy sources in the country.

He said, “In some countries today, what they’ve done is ask everybody to work from home because they cannot afford it.“I think in Indonesia, they only go to work four days a week. And they will look at the situation. If it doesn’t improve, they will ask everybody not to go to work anymore. We will do like that time of COVID, where people will now go and work from home,” Dangote said.

It’s not only energy. Some people will try to take a chance and say, ‘Ah, this is an opportunity. So, let me make money. So, if this thing doesn’t de-escalate, it is going to keep going up and governments cannot really now go and add salaries also. So, people will really feel the pinch,” he said.

Dangote explained that the crisis would hit hardest at ordinary Africans operating small businesses, “People who are barbers, people who are doing bread, people who have industries who have to pay their own generator, I mean, you can see what is happening,” he said.