The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has welcomed the release of final rules by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the implementation of Dodd Frank Section 1504, which requires oil, gas and mining companies to disclose payments made to governments of resource host countries.
A press statement recently issued and signed by Mohammed Amin Adam, Executive Director of ACEP, a think tank, said such payments include taxes, royalties, fees (including license fees), production entitlements, and bonuses, consistent with Section 13(q), as well as community and social responsibility payments (“CSR payments”) that are required by law or contract, dividends and payments for infrastructure improvements.
“ACEP has been active over the last three years in demanding strong implementing rules for the purpose of increasing responsible investments in Africa and more importantly, holding African government’s accountable to their citizens for the collection and use of resource revenues. In furtherance of our mandate for the transparent and efficient management of Africa’s abundant resource wealth, we submitted two letters to the SEC at various stages of the rule making process, and working with our partner Oxfam US, we made oral submissions to officials of the SEC.
“We are pleased that our submissions, which highlighted the importance of the rules to the African people, particularly communities affected by resource extraction, have been well recognized by the strength and comprehensiveness of the final rules.”
There are many extractive related activities in Africa, involving companies that are listed in the US.
In Ghana for example, extractive producing companies such as US-listed oil companies – Kosmos Energy and Anadarko and US-listed mining companies – Goldfields, Newmont Mining and AngloGold Ashanti, are contributing to economic development efforts.
It is therefore important for their efforts to be measured vis-a-vis their impact on the environment and people.
A business desk report