APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The Director-General of the Dakar based ECOWAS Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering In West Africa (GIABA), Mr Edwin Harris, has said that Africa loses about $60 billion each year through Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs).
Harris, who was the Guest Lecturer at the Realnews 11th Anniversary Lecture on Tuesday in Lagos. Harris said a High Level Panel, on IFFs also stated that Africa is estimated to have lost $1 trillion or more over the past 50 years to IFFs.
Speaking on ”The Threats of Illicit Financial Flow to the African Economy”, Harris disclosed that the continent is estimated to lose over $50 billion annually to IFFs .
According to him, this fact is corroborated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, which estimated that Africa loses as much as $60 billion each year to IFFs.
He recalled that that in 2020, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its report on Economic Development in Africa, estimated that Africa loses about $88.6 billion, 3.7 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product, GDP, annually to IFFs.
Harris said that at a regional level, the scale of criminal proceeds in West Africa was estimated at 3.6.per cent of global GDP.
According to him, IFFs from Africa typically originates from three sources, which are “corruption, including money acquired through bribery and abuse of office by public sector and private sector officials. The others are criminal activities, ranging from trafficking in people and drugs, arms smuggling, fraud in the financial sector, such as unauthorised or unsecured loans, money laundering, stock market manipulation and outright forgery, and commercial activities, arising from business-related activities, and having several purposes, including hiding wealth, evading or aggressively avoiding tax, and dodging customs duties and domestic levies.
He observed that despite the challenges in estimating the scale of IFFs in Africa and the critiques of the current estimates on IFFs, there is widespread agreement among critical stakeholders that their scale is huge, and growing and are almost equal to Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) flows to Africa combined.
Harris therefore urged African leaders to step up efforts in the fight against IFFs in the region and that the fight would require a collective action by all critical stakeholders, including national authorities, the private sector and civil society organisations to press for change in their countries and the continent at large.
According to him, African leaders cannot afford to watch this cankerworm that is gradually destroying the continent.
“IFFs are a global phenomenon and do not respect borders. They undermine global social, political and economic security and have become a serious threat to the attainment of development agenda, particularly in Africa.
“Africa’s efforts to ensure the reduction of IFFs must be pro-active, firm and unwavering while activities that give rise to IFFs must be vigorously fought without compromise.
“The key task is to take bold steps, cooperate and coordinate efforts and unit to dismantle the system extracting wealth from Africa,” he added.
GIK/APA
Africa loses $60bn annually to Illicit Financial Flows – GIABA D-G
