Dakar, September 11, 2015 - At the conclusion of an intensive three-day workshop on tax regulation in the extractives industry, senior policy-makers from across West and Central Africa have called for greater regional cooperation and capacity development to support the effective management and governance of natural resources in their countries.

The NEPAD-led workshop held in Dakar, Senegal aimed to provide government officials in the mining and fiscal ministries the opportunity to exchange experiences and engage regional and international experts on a range of issues related to the extractives industry sector.

Member State representatives underscored the need for the reinforcement of capacity, noting the current gap in the negotiating and technical skills between governments and international companies operating in the sector. The imbalance in technical know-how had often resulted in contracts skewed toward the benefit of foreign companies, they said.

Participants also raised concern about the lack of adequate data in the sector, stressing that much more was needed to ensure access to relevant and reliable data.

International legal and taxation expert Mr. Stephen Shay highlighted during the workshop that proper access to quality data was vital as it enabled governments to pursue informed decisions when crafting strategies to effectively engage in complex contract negotiations. He added that equipped with reliable data, governments in the region would be in a better position to establish robust fiscal regimes and improve transparency. 

Member States also signalled the critical importance of increased knowledge sharing within the region as well as with other stakeholders working in the extractives industry sector in developing and developed countries. This, they said, would increase their capacity to develop country-specific legal and tax frameworks which would, in the long term, provide benefits to local populations. A key outcome of the workshop included a request by Member States for the NEPAD Agency to develop a knowledge management platform, which would allow for the effective exchange of much-needed data, information, technical expertise and national experiences. Additionally, government representatives invited NEPAD to undertake additional training at the national level to further develop capacity and local expertise.

“The exploitation of African natural resources must contribute to the inclusive development and trans formation of our economies. The high number of countries represented at a senior level at this inaugural meeting of the NEPAD Dialogue and Training series under the NEPAD Natural Resources and Governance Programme is a clear indication of the importance of designing tax and fiscal regimes that ensure equity and fairness in the flow of benefits to African governments and their populations,” said NEPAD Agency Director of Programme Implementation and Coordination Mrs. Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong. 

The three-day meeting, supported by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the German aid agency, GIZ, is the first in a series of planned workshops which the NEPAD Agency intends to undertake across the continent. The workshop is a key activity in the Agency’s Natural Resource and Governance Programme, which aims to comprehensively develop the necessary technical skills of Member States to ensure that ministries are adequately prepared to initiate, implement and administer the lifecycle of projects and make informed decisions throughout the value chain in the extractives sector. 

The Natural Resource and Governance Programme aims to support African Union Member States in the management of natural resources through facilitating the implementation of the Africa Mining Vision and other instruments to build capacity and improve governance in the mining sector.

Source: NEPAD