Eight years after its exclusion from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), oil and manganese producer Gabon is accelerating its efforts to regain eligibility for the initiative. Representatives of the government, oil companies and NGOs are working together to draft the documents required to rejoin the organization.
Gabon has made its return to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) an objective, but above all, a proof of good governance and an end to the opacity often denounced in the mining and oil sectors.
The young intellectual Léontine Tania Oyouomi Loumbou Bibey has been appointed to lead this ambition on behalf of the government. “The process of return denotes the strong will to inform the populations of the distribution of natural resources to reassure the international partners of the transparent management of raw materials at the level of the extractive sector and obviously the allocation of resources and revenues that result.
On the other hand, the state representative has to deal with an ever-vindictive civil society. Georges Mpaga is one of its representatives. “Our role is to ensure that the revenues from the extractive sector are used to fight against inequalities, against the curse of raw materials.
Gabon had been excluded from the EITI in 2013 for failing to produce its reports on its mining and oil revenues. “This will not happen again,” pledged the government representative, who hopes that the country will be readmitted to the initiative by the end of 2021.