Addis Ababa — The African Mineral Development Centre (AMDC), in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the Government of Equatorial Guinea, organized a four-day capacity-building training on contract negotiation and the structuring effects of the extractive sector on the economy from 15 to 18 February 2017 in Malabo.

Equatorial Guinea, with its experience in hydrocarbons and as the fourth oil producer in Africa, has a significant mining potential that can fully utilize the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) principles. The event served as a venue to provide local stakeholders with the necessary expertise to develop a robust extractive sector, and to sensitize the relevant public authorities and national experts on the negotiation techniques for the specific mining contracts, strategies to monitor the implementation of these contracts, and the opportunities offered by the multiplication of linkages between the extractive sector and the rest of the economy.

Nearly 120 technicians from the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons were trained during this session on various topics including the AMV approach on contracts negotiation and the development of linkages, the strategies which should be used by Governments to encourage the integration of local entrepreneurs along the mineral value chain, the impact of geological information on contracts negotiation, mechanisms to strengthen local content in the extractive sector, cost related to production activities, the issue of the development of related infrastructures in the mining projects context, and the APPA Petroleum Fund.

Mining & Development in Central Africa - Much Still to Be Done

The changing dynamics of the extractive industries, namely falling commodity prices, is presurring Central African countries to seriously consider moving away from a situation where they are just "simple suppliers of crude coltan" to becoming "producers of coltan-based smartphone component parts." These changing dynamics offer a challenge and opportunity for the implementation of the African Mining Vision (AMV) in Central Africa, says Mr. Antonio Pedro, director of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)'s Sub-Regional Office for Central Africa. Read more. More about the ECA in this BRIEFING. 

The project coordinator, Claudine Sigam, expressed her optimism about the impact of the Malabo training session, "I am confident that all the lessons learned during this training session will be useful for the efforts undertaken by Equatorial Guinea to diversify its economy."

At the end of the training, the participants agreed on the need to multiply such capacity-building programs while stressing their willingness to participate more frequently on international forums in order to improve mining governance and stimulate inclusive development and structural transformation of the Equatoguinean economy.