President Muhammadu Buhari has said that a major cause of
insecurity in Africa is the free flow of illicit funds on the
continent.
Speaking at the 16th Conference of the Committee of Intelligence
and Security Services of Africa on Thursday in Abuja, the President
called on the intelligence services to trace and block such funds
and the sponsors of terror activities.
He put the estimate of such illegal funding of crime and
outflows from Africa around $60billion annually.
“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.
“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,”, a statement by his Special Adviser
on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, quoted Buhari as telling
the attendees.
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