African extractive ministers meet to explore effective strategies

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Some African ministers in the extractive industry are meet ing in Accra, Ghana's capital, to brainstorm on existing extractive laws and challenges, with the aim of fashioning out a work programme for leaders at the highest level of decision making on the continent.
The two-day workshop being attended by representatives from Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda as well as local and international experts in the sector, is to share experiences and discuss preliminary findings of a rec ent study on the sector in Africa.
The African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), an organisation that prov ides high level policy analysis, research and advisory support to African countries, conducted the study to enable it to set up an extractive reso urce service on the continent.
Dr Edward Brown, ACET Director of Policy Advisory, said at the opening of the wo rkshop Friday that ''the interface between research and policy advisory is very weak in most African countries,'' which underpins the many chal lenges that prevent optimal impact of policy decisions on the economies.
Currently, he said, ACET is providing policy advisory services to Ghana, Liberia Sierra Leone and Rwanda in several areas of the economy.
The ACET study, which covered nine sub-Saharan African countries in West, Centra l, East and Southern Africa, was limited to oil, gas and mineral resources.
The countries are Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The findings showed that poorly structured tax laws and inconsistent enforcement of provisions when dealing with multinationals costs African governments much needed revenue in the sector….

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