reforms. On 20th July, 2011, the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Bill was signed into law to replace the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board Act with new rules. The Council is expected, to among other things:  harmonize regulatory and professional bodies responsible for corporate governance and financial reporting;  monitor and ensure the accuracy, veracity and fairness of accounting and financial reports of publicly quoted companies;  issue a Code of Corporate Governance guidelines aimed at promoting high quality corporate governance and reporting standards in line with international best practices; and  harmonize various codes of corporate governance in the country to achieve uniformity. 5.5.3 The new Council is expected to align Nigeria with other countries and improve investor confidence so as to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country; produce a more meaningful and decision - enhancing information for financial statements issued in Nigeria, and establish accuracy and reliability of financial disclosures of companies operating in Nigeria. 5.5.4 The establishment of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria means that more meaningful and decision enhancing information can now be arrived at from financial statements issued in Nigeria since actuarial, valuation and auditing standards used in preparing these statements, are issued and regulated by the Financial Reporting Council. The Council is also expected to promote high quality corporate governance standards and reports that will foster investment in the country. 5.5.5 The decision of the Nigerian Government to implement wide-ranging reforms and openness in payments and receipts in line with the global multi stakeholders Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) led to the establishment of Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) with the passage of the NEITI Act in May, 2007. This paved the way for the enthronement of a more open, transparent extractive (oil, gas and 68

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