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'We need to do more' underscored at Ghana's regional EITI event

Ghana’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, GHEITI, opened the regional conference “Natural resource governance: setting standards with EITI” in Accra on 27 September. GHEITI hosted a vibrant meeting with stakeholders from all over Ghana, including traditional authorities, and participants from alltogether 11 EITI implementing countries.

The first session was chaired by Hon. Naa John Nabila, President of the National House of Chiefs. Reflecting on the importance of the mineral wealth and recent vast oil discoveries to the development of Ghana, Prof. Nabila commended GHEITI for “alerting us about the issues involved in revenue management” and added “we won’t let these resources go to waste”.

Enoch Cobbinah, Chairman of GHEITI highlighted the many issues that a country needs to get right in ensuring that wealth translates into reducing poverty and development. From monitoring contracts to auditing the accounts to ensure proper utilization of the resources, Mr Cobbinah reminded the audience of the great challenges in ensuring sound management of natural resources. He added “these issues are here and won’t go away and we need to do more”.

Steven Manteaw, representing civil society organizations, urged stakeholders to be innovative and ambitious in continuing implementing the EITI.

Speakers from national EITIs shared experiences from their home countries. These included Timor Leste's new  'Transparency portal', the challenges in Sierra Leone, and Nigeria EITI's contribution to the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

Francisco Paris, from the EITI International Secretariat, urged EITI implementers to keep building on the great achievements in so many countries. He summarized the challenges ahead: “we need better reports, to make EITI implementation more efficient and to build broader and stronger EITI platforms”.

Participants came from the EITI implementing countries Gabon, Liberia, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Togo as well as Azerbaijan and Timor Leste.

For further information about Ghana's EITI, please visit the Ghana country page or contact Regional Director Francisco Paris.