Africa is home to seven of the ten fastest growing economies and is seen as the land of opportunity, the investors next stop. But it’s also a land dotted with corruption, poverty and violence. The continent is also in need of infrastructure development, which requires financing. And while R50 billion is a tiny drop in the ocean of what’s needed, it still leaves African shores illegally each year. The development path requires a lot more than halting these illicit flows but they say one should always try to fix one’s own ship before asking for help, and this may be one of the areas to start. – Stuart Lowman
by Ahmed Areff, News24
Johannesburg – Africa loses more than R50bn every year as a result of the illicit flow of funds, former president Thabo Mbeki has said.
“Africa faces the great challenge of large volumes of capital leaving the continent illicitly – money that our continent needs to address the challenges of development,” Mbeki told a meeting of the Group of African Governors, affiliated with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, known as the African Caucus.
This was according to a statement from the caucus.
“We, as Africans, have an absolute obligation to act on this to ensure that the rest of the world… by acting together, will help stop this drain of resources…”
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Mbeki is the head of the high-level panel on illicit financial flows from Africa created by the United Nations economic commission for Africa and the African Union.
He said it was possible to put an end to the problem with proper monitoring of the transactions of large commercial companies.
Interventions were needed from institutions such as tax authorities, customs, central banks, financial intelligence units for combating money laundering, audit and anti-corruption authorities and the police, he said.
