Africa Loses $60bn Yearly to Illicit Financial Flows – Buhari

Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has said that African countries lose at least $60 billion annually due to illegal financial transactions.

Buhari made the observation in Abuja on Thursday while delivering a keynote address at the opening session of the 16th Conference of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA).

He tasked security agencies in Africa, particularly the intelligence community, to combat illicit financial flows, adding that development and stability of Africa have been undermined it.

“Frankly, we may never know the true extent of the damage. Estimates, however, suggest that African countries lose over 60 billion US dollars annually due to illicit financial outflows, a staggering amount for a continent in dire need of development finance,” he said in a statement by his spokesman, Femi Adesina.

“Corroborating this figure, a United Nations Report on ‘Illicit Financial Flows and the Problem of Net Resource Transfers from Africa: 1980-2009,’ observed that during the period 1980 to 2009 between $1.2 trillion and $1.4 trillion was taken out of Africa. This figure is half of the current Gross Domestic Products of all the countries of Africa,’’ he said.

Buhari described the theme for the conference, “Illicit Financial Outflows from Africa and its impact on National Security and Development,’’ as timely and appealed to stakeholders from the intelligence community of 52 African countries to create a template of risk factors and actionable strategies.

The president said criminals and their accomplices robbed the system through their nefarious activities and challenged the conference to put measures in place to deny terrorists and other criminals access to funds.

“Criminals and their collaborators cheat the system through various practices, including trade mis-pricing, trade mis-invoicing, tax abuse and evasion, as well as money laundering. Several unfair commercial agreements and illegal resource extraction by multinational companies, in cahoots with their local collaborators, also create routes for illicit financial outflows.

“As partners in the fight against crime and insecurity, you know that terrorist networks, organised criminal syndicates of drugs, arms and human traffickers and sundry hostile non-state actors are actively undermining the security and stability of our countries,’’ he added.