- Nigeria, Others Losing $50bn Annually to Illicit Financial Flows – AfDB
Nigeria and other African countries are losing more than $50bn per annum to illicit financial flows, the African Development Bank has said.
The Senior Director, Nigeria, AfDB, Ebrima Faal, said this at the opening of a workshop on the role of the parliament in combating illicit financial flows from the continent.
Faal noted that the parliament had a primary role to play in checking illicit financial flows because of its role in promoting good economic and financial governance through effective oversight of the public budget and expenditure management.
He stated, “Estimates on illicit financial flows are highly disparate due to differences in methodologies. Current estimates suggest Africa could be losing more than $50bn annually in illicit financial flows.
“This is about the same size as the total Foreign Direct Investment or total remittance flows, and slightly higher than overseas development assistance. But these estimates may well be lower than actual outflows as accurate data do not exist for all African countries, and some discrete forms of illicit financial flows are excluded and, therefore, not easy to track, let alone estimate.”
The AfDB director added, “The role of the parliaments in promoting economic recovery and sustainable development is a fundamental one. Parliaments have the constitutional mandate to both oversee the government and to hold the government to account.
“It is a vital democratic institution serving as a bridge between the state and the society. In carrying out its legislative, oversight and representative roles, the parliament helps strengthen good governance for enhanced growth and poverty reduction.
“In this regard, the African Development Bank is committed to supporting the capacity building of African parliaments to help strengthen their oversight function. In this regard, we hope to leverage parliaments and parliamentarians to promote good economic governance in our regional member countries.”
Faal said the first pillar of its Strategic Framework and Action Plan for the Prevention of Illicit Financial Flows on the continent was anchored on strengthening the capacity of the bank’s regional member countries and regional economic communities to fight illicit financial flows.
Meanwhile, multilateral development banks, including the AfDB, on Tuesday in Abidjan, presented the result of a study on technology’s impact on jobs.
The study, ‘The Future of Work: Regional Perspectives’, discussed the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on labour markets across the globe.
According to the study, rapid technological progress provides a golden opportunity for emerging and developing economies to grow faster and attain higher levels of prosperity.
