Africa loses about US$50bn yearly through illicit outflows – Vitus Azeem

The Executive Director of the Center for Budget Advocacy Ghana Mr. Vitus Azeem says Africa loses as much as 50 billion dollars each year through illicit financial flow.

According to him corporate commercial activity in particular stands out as the biggest culprit accounting for as much as 65% of all illicit outflows.

He said this at the launch of the stop the bleeding campaign which aims to end illicit financial flows in Africa.

According to the Global Financial Integrity (GFI), trade misinvoicing accounted for 68.8% of all illicit outflows from sub-Saharan African between 2003 and 2012: Trade misinvoicing is a method for moving money illicitly across borders which involves deliberately misreporting the value of a commercial transaction on an invoice submitted to customs.

The Economic Commission on Africa (ECA) estimated that between 2001 and 2010 African countries lost up to 407 billion dollars from trade mispricing alone.

Mr. Azeem announced that that, a joint report by the African Development Bank (ADB) and Global Financial Integrity (GFI) shows that illicit financial flow and the problem of net resource transfer from Africa since 1980 to 2009 puts the total illicit outflow from the continent as much as 1.4 trillion for the three decade.

Also, a report published earlier this month states that Africa is a creditor to the rest of the world to the tune of 41 billion each year.

The movement of capital using illicit means undermines the continent’s ability to mobilize domestic resources to address pressing challenges such as growth inequality, poverty, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and other vital development priorities, he added.