Ethiopia EITI met the requirement for developing a roadmap for beneficial ownership disclosure by December 2016. However, the EITI International Secretariat identified weaknesses in it and offered budgetary support to the Ethiopia EITI MSG. Ethiopia EITI also faced resistance from some extractive companies in the country about the need to report beneficial ownership information.
Michael Barron and Tim Law won a competitive tender to provide support to Ethiopia EITI, including advising the country’s EITI secretariat around implementing EITI beneficial ownership requirements. In March 2017, we produced a scoping study for beneficial ownership reporting requirements in Ethiopia, including:
- Reviewing the existing Ethiopia EITI roadmap and the EITI report which included beneficial ownership disclosure
- Assessing existing and proposed legislation around beneficial ownership reporting and providing comments
- Interviewing stakeholders from Ethiopia’s government, civil society and industry
- Benchmarking Ethiopia against best practice in beneficial ownership disclosure
- Conducting a workshop in Addis Ababa attended by companies in scope for reporting and civil society representatives.
We produced two well-received reports: the scoping study and a review of Ethiopia EITI’s roadmap, available here. Ethiopia EITI was able to address the weaknesses in its roadmap. The companies in scope for reporting also understood the advantages of beneficial ownership and their obligations under the EITI requirements.
