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