The report that Ghana is estimated to lose $1.4 billion annually through Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs), Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), an international fair tax advocacy, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has cautioned is one of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana is estimated to lose $1.4 billion annually through Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs), Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), an international fair tax advocacy and non-governmental organisation (NGO), has cautioned.
Ishmael Zulu, policy officer, in charge of Tax and Equity of the NGO, noted that the unlawful transfer of funds was depriving the country of the necessary financial resources.
The funds, he said, were transferred to the developed economies and tax havens such as Mauritius, Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands.
Mr Zulu, who issued the warning during a two-day training workshop for journalists in Accra, under the theme: “Empowering Voices for Equitable Taxation: Building a Generation of Tax Justice Champions,” said the African continent lost $88.6 billion through IFFS.
The Policy Officer, in charge of Tax and Equity, who spoke on the topic: “State of Play of IFFs in Africa – A Tax Perspective,” said according to the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development, IFFs were “Illicit in origin, transfer or use; that reflected and exchange of value instead of purely financial transactions and that cross-country borders.”
The Graphic says that a Tax Policy Officer of TJNA, Evelyn Muedo, noted that multinational and corporate organisations employed price transfer methods to avoid paying tax in developing countries.
She said that multinational and corporate organisations took advantage of the relationship between them and their partners and associates in Africa, to inflate or reduce prices of goods produced for their associates or partners to avoid tax payment.
The Head of Secretariat of NETRIGHT, Mrs Patricia Blankson Akpakpo, said the key objective of SCUT II was to strengthen the capacity of journalists, to publish stories on tax justice, domestic revenue mobilisation and IFFS and also empower journalists with the knowledge and expertise required to effectively uncover hidden financial practices, and expose tax evasion.
She said the programme was to empower journalists to write tax and domestic revenue mobilisation stories from a gender perspective and create space for the voices of women to be heard in such stories.
Mrs Akakpo said the programme was to increase public awareness and engagement on tax justice, equity and accountability.
She said it was also to strengthen partnerships and collaboration between journalists, civil society organisations working in the field of financial transparency and governance.
The two-day workshop, organised by the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) in collaboration with TJNA, was in connection with a three-year project, titled Scaling UP Tax Justice III (SCUT III) in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Liberia, Senegal, Cameroun and Tunisia.
Attended by about 25 journalists from across the country, the two-day programme, which ended last Thursday, was to build the capacity of journalists to write gender sensitive tax stories.
The newspaper reports that the World Bank in its latest report on food security has underscored the need for greater coherence between humanitarian and development financing to address the root causes of acute food insecurity and reduce reliance on short-term aid measures.
It said as the world grapples with evolving geopolitical dynamics and mounting food security challenges, policymakers face the imperative of fostering sustainable solutions to ensure global food stability amidst uncertainty.
The call comes at a time when global warming and in particular, reckless misuse or destruction of water bodies through illegal mining activities is affecting not only the quality of water meant for farming but forcing many water bodies to either dry up or are on the verge of drying up.
In Ghana for instance, the heavy pollution of water bodies with dangerous chemicals such as cyanide and mercury for the washing of gold mined from water bodies, is making it very unsafe for farmers to use for crop production.
Already, the country imports large quantities of agricultural produce such as tomatoes, onions and other vegetables from neighbouring countries to supplement the few grown in the country.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), food inflation dropped from 28.7 per cent in December 2023 to 27.1 per cent in January 2024.
Cocoa drinks recorded an inflation rate of 73.5 per cent, followed by tea and related products with an inflation rate of 71.2 per cent.
The Graphic also says that following the recent disruption to data services caused by undersea cable cuts, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in Ghana have swiftly taken action to minimize the impact on consumers.
The National Communications Authority (NCA) in a statement said multiple undersea cables, including ACE, MainOne, SAT-3, and WACS, experienced significant capacity losses ranging from 90percent to complete outage.
This disruption which was detected Thursday morning led to a substantial loss of 1,596.6 Gbps data capacity, affecting both mobile and fixed data communication services across the country.
In response to the outage, MNOs have activated their service continuity plans. MTN, for instance, is utilizing local caches to provide limited data services, while Telecel has increased capacity on ACE to 50Gbps by redirecting traffic through alternative routes.
Similarly, AT has confirmed that their current capacity of 19.5Gbps is adequate to serve their customer base.
The NCA stressed that Ghana is not alone in facing these challenges, noting that neighboring countries such as Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, and Cameroon are also grappling with similar disruptions.
The NCA statement said it continues to monitor the situation closely and collaborate with stakeholders and service providers to expedite the restoration of full services. Updates on any developments will be provided to the public in due course.
On X (formerly Twitter), some social media users have been reacting to the performance of the MNOs with AirtelTigo (now AT) among the top trends.
X users have been praising the network for its relative stability in the face of the disruption.
GIK/APA