SeP Challenges Cameroonian Citizens to read and make proper use of EITI Reports.

SeP has called on Cameroonian citizens to assert their citizenship by reading EITI reports and contribute to public discussion to promote transparency and good governance in extractive sector in Cameroon. The call was made on the occasion of the 6th International Exhibition of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SME) and Partnership (PROMOTE) held in Yaounde from the 11th to the 19th of February 2017.

During the event, 18 sectors of activity were registered and 1300 stands were opened. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative was part of the exhibition. More than eighteen thousand (18,000) visitors visited the exhibition.

During the conference organized by the EITI Committee on the theme“EITI: Implementation Status and Results Obtained to date”, speakers who were members of the EITI Committee and Technical Secretariat drilled the huge audience on various aspects of the Initiative in Cameroon.

The Director of Ecumenical Service for Peace (Dr. Ndi Richard Tanto) drilled the participants on the topic, “How to read and use an EITI report”. His presentation focused on the importance of the EITI report, the content of the report, the need for all citizens to read the report, and how to use the report to promote extractive revenue transparency and promote accountability in the use of such revenue to improve the lives of the population and redress the resource Curse theory. He also focused attention on aspects of the report that can directly impact the lives of ordinary citizens like infra- national transfers, Corporate Social Responsibility, and extraction and ad valorem taxes directed towards the citizens. According to him, revenue from the sources above can be effectively used to improve the living conditions of the population if they actively read, understand and use the report to ensure accountability by their leaders. He challenged leaders to always give feedback to the population they represent as a demonstration of their stewardship.

This conference which was organized a few months to the second validation of Cameroon permitted the Committee to share experiences and help increase people’s awareness of Cameroonians on the progress made by the country in improving transparency and governance in the extractive sector.

Cameroon will go through its second validation beginning July 2017. Validation is intended to ascertain that Cameroon has continued to respect the EITI standard, implement the recommendations made by conciliators and validators, and remains committed to the initiative.