Roundup: African oil exporters urged to invest in agriculture

Stakeholders at the just ended two-day Second Africa Oil Governance Forum has urged the governments of petroleum Exporting nations on the continent to invest heavily and properly in agriculture.

Participants to the forum argued late Tuesday that due to the volatility of petroleum prices, steps should be taken to invest aggressively in poverty reduction initiatives.

A communique issued at the close of the forum further requested state petroleum institutions to coordinate effectively with National Development Institutions to ensure integrated resource development for inclusive growth.

Participants at the forum organized by Accra-based energy think-tank Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) identified illicit financial outflows from Africa as one of the major loopholes in the continent's desire to be financially independent.

They therefore urged that leadership on the continent pass appropriate legislations and invest in capacity building to check illicit financial outflows particularly from the oil and gas sector.

"We demand further that our governments build appropriate partnership with the international community to design appropriate global guidelines and response to illicit financial outflows," the communique read.

They were of the view that African government could channel increased domestic revenues resulting from curbing illicit financial outflows and improvement in tax administration into financing sustainable development initiatives to ensure the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Another way African resource-rich countries lose resources, the participants observed was the indiscriminate granting of tax concessions as a means of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the resource exploration and exploitation sector.

They therefore urged the leaders of the various African countries to stop the blanket granting of tax concessions to extractive companies, and must review tax concession policies to appropriately target investments that bring maximum benefits to our countries.

"To this effect, we demand that our governments conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the current tax concession regime to determine its effectiveness as a tool for investment attraction," the communique advocated. Endit