The Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama has bemoaned that African countries lose about $70 billion worth of resources to illicit financial flows every year even as he called for concerted effort to tackle the menace.
The Minister who spoke at the ongoing 74th Session United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York said the problem of illicit financial flows out if Africa was the subject of an event organised at the United Nations Headquarters which saw Nigeria’s President and other African Heads of State including Zambia and Ethiopia in attendance.
Tackling illicit financial flow was one of the main items Nigeria took t the 74th session of the UNGA because of its deleterious impacts on the continent. Sources from the Foreign Affairs Ministry on Thursday said a large number of participants took part in the conference and discussed illicit financial flows out of Africa and the anti-corruption steps taken by the Nigerian government.
The Minister said “We engaged very robustly in this session and really articulated to the global community Nigerian priorities and look to also show some leadership of Nigeria and to attract support from the international community.”
Illicit financial flows cost African countries at least $50 billion every year, more than the total sum of development aid the continent receives, according to a 2018 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, OECD.
According to the estimates of the high-level panel of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, these illicit flows have been increasing since the start of the century, when they stood at less than $20 billion a year.
Focusing on West African states, the OECD mapped the criminal activities that cause illicit financial flows, from medication smuggling to human trafficking. The OECD argues that the total financial cost of the flows is significantly higher because of the effect these activities have on the development and the stability of the countries concerned.
Illicit financial flows have been blamed for the financing and fuelling terrorism, which has devastated parts of West Africa and displaced million of people.
Innocent Odoh, Abuja
