African leaders asked to make good deals in extractive sector

African leaders have been urged to make good negotiation deals to get desirable benefits from their natural resources.

A good negotiation deal, according to Mr George Lugalambi, the Media Capacity Development Officer of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), an NGO in the extractive sector could be obtained if African governments placed priority on taxation and local impact when signing contracts.

Mr Lugalambi gave the advice at the on-going regional training course for selected African Journalists on oil, gas and mining in Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania in East Africa.

Twenty-Four Journalists – eight each selected from Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda are attending the 14-day course being organized by the Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) in collaboration with Penplusbytes, an International ICT Journalism in Ghana and the African Center of Media Excellence in Uganda.

Mr Lugalambi observed that natural resource extraction had huge effects on local communities, hence, the need for African leaders to think of the ordinary people whenever they undertake a negotiation deal for the exploitation of minerals.

He underlined the importance for governments in the continent to put and allowed national interest to override their individual gains on the natural resource decision chain for the benefit of the majority of citizens.

Mr Nicholas Phythian, an International Journalist and the Course Content Development Officer explained the importance for African governments to identify and address weaknesses in their various legal regime governing the extractive sector.

This, they could do better, when African leaders do comparative analysis in their legal frameworks on the extractive sector to be able to know their weaknesses and strength, he added.

According to Mr Phythian, this would put them in a better position to strongly negotiate for better deals.

Source: GNA