The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has said the country made a meaningful progress overall in the extractive sector by implementing the 2016 EITI recommendations and standards.

The EITI Board agreed that Ghana made meaningful progress in major areas of concern in license register, state participation, production and export data, comprehensiveness, in-kind revenues, State Owned Enterprise(SOE) transactions and SOE quasi-fiscal expenditures.

The Extractive Industries Transparency International is a global standard to promote the open and accountable management of extractive resources; it seeks to address the key governance issues in the oil, gas and mining sectors.

It’s been observed that poverty is almost four times higher in the rural areas where these resources are located than in the urban areas compared to twice as high in the 1990s. These were revealed in a stakeholder’s discussion on EITI Board decision report, March 8, 2017 at the Coconut Grove Hotel.

Speaking to Atinka FM, the Co-Chair of Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), Dr. Steve Manteaw, said that Ghana has performed creditably well and left with only two standards to attain to become the best amongst its peers in Africa.

He however, mentioned that the country needs to improve in providing information to the public by making available the payments received from mining industries and how much industries also paid.

Also present at the event was the Director of Real Sector Division at the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Frimpong Kwarteng Amaning, who spoke on behalf of the Chief Director commended stakeholders for Ghana’s significant progress.

And that it is worth noting that Ghana EITI has undergone the validation process and has been declared EITI complaint. He however called for a look into areas like license register, production and export date, state participation amongst others.