President Muhammadu Buhari revealed that Nigeria will soon adopt the full implementation of the principles of the Open Contracting Data Standard, OCDS.
President Buhari, on Thursday, May 12, at the ongoing anti-corruption summit, pledged that in furtherance of his administration’s effort against corruption, the OCDS standard will enable disclosure of data and documents at all stages of the contracting process by defining a common data model.
The publication of OCDS data ensures greater transparency in public contracting, and can support accessible and in-depth analysis of the efficiency, effectiveness, fairness, and integrity of public contracting systems.
“Nigeria is already collating this information through the Extractive Industry Initiative process and will extend it to other sectors.
“Nigeria will establish a transparent central register of foreign companies bidding on public contracts and buying property. We welcome the proposal by developed countries to work together to improve the access of developing countries to beneficial ownership information for use in public contracting, the president said.
President Buhari also, welcomed a proposal to restrict the ability of those involved in corruption to travel, invest and do business overseas.
“We commit to joining the pilot initiative for automatic exchange of beneficial information. Nigeria commits to deploying public-private information sharing partnerships to bring together governments, law enforcement, regulators and the financial sector to detect, prevent and disrupt money laundering linked to corruption.”He further said.