The federal government has submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations Convention against Corruption on the use of Beneficial Ownership information and data disclosure to identify, track, recover and return assets looted or stolen from developing countries.
This is as the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) introduce the National Beneficial Ownership Register to track facts, information and data on who owns what in the oil, gas and mining sectors in Nigeria.
Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, the Executive Secretary of NEITI said the register developed by NEITI is part of strategies put in place to check tax evasion, terrorism financing, illicit financial flows and capital flight.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami while submitting the draft resolution at the 9th Session of Conference of State Parties in Egypt, said it was part of Nigeria’s institutional structures and legislation to protect Nigeria’s resources.
The Minister conveyed Nigeria’s appeal to the Conference of State Parties of the UN Convention against Corruption to consider the draft resolution on its merit in view of its strategic importance in recovering looted assets from developing countries.
The UN Conference is expected to ratify the global anti-corruption strategy for adoption by over 150 countries attending the Conference.
