EITI boss due in Nigeria on two-day working visit

Clare Short will arrive Nigeria on October 13.
The global leader of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Clare Short, is to visit Nigeria on a two-day tour scheduled for between October 13 and 15.

Mrs. Short, a former member of the British Parliament and former Secretary of State for International Development for the British Government, would be accompanied on the visit by a senior team from the EITI international secretariat based in Oslo, Norway.

The Director of Communications of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Ogbonnaya Orji, said on Tuesday that the itinerary of the visit indicate that Mrs. Short would hold consultations with high-ranking government officials, the legislature, development partners, the media, and civil society as well as key players in the Nigeria oil, gas, and mining sectors.

Mr. Orji said the EITI boss would hold talks with President Goodluck Jonathan on the implementation of EITI principles in Nigeria and its wider implications on the ongoing reforms in the country’s oil, gas, and mining sectors of the economy.

She is also expected to hold similar consultations with the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; address the board and management of NEITI; and observe a scheduled meeting of Federal Government Inter – Ministerial Task Team on implementation of the findings and recommendations of the NEITI audit reports.