#PanamaPapers: Nigeria Agrees to Expose Beneficial Owners of Companies

7 years ago

#PanamaPapers: Nigeria Agrees to Expose Beneficial Owners of Companies

The Nigerian Government has decided to look into the big names implicated in the Panama papers leak that indicted prominent public office holders in Nigeria.

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed the commitment of his administration to create a public registry of beneficial owners of companies in Nigeria.

The President’s promise followed a PremiumTimes publication of the names of 106 Nigerians and firms who own companies and assets in offshore tax havens.

The revelation is part of the biggest data leak in history now known as the PanamaPapers. The leaked database contained the internal data of Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, which was obtained by German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitunge, and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with PREMIUM TIMES and other media organizations around the world.

The President’s commitment alongside other far-reaching measures to combat corruption and improve transparency was contained in the country’s draft statement during the anti-corruption summit in London on Thursday.

Mr. Buhari said to enhance transparency in assets ownership, his administration would establish a public central register of beneficial owners of companies.

Suggesting that the process of creating the register was already underway, Mr. Buhari said the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Bill he sent to the national assembly in February defined beneficial ownership in line with the expectations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Established in 1989, the FATF is an inter-governmental body that sets standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

“We are committed to implementing bilateral arrangements that will ensure law enforcement in one partner country has full and effective access to the beneficial ownership information of companies incorporated in the other partner country,” Mr Buhari said.

The president explained that his government had already taken steps to improve transparency in companies involved in the procurement of properties and public contracts.

“We are taking steps to ensure transparency of the ownership and control of all companies involved in property purchase and public contracting. Nigeria is already collating this information through the Extractive Industry Initiative process and would extend it to other sectors,” he wrote.

“Nigeria will establish a transparent central register of foreign companies bidding on public contracts and buying property.”

As a member of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), Mr Buhari said Nigeria was already allowing better disclosure of companies in the extractive sector as required by EITI.