President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that Nigeria lost an estimated US$157.5 billion to illicit financial flows between 2003 and 2012.
Quoting from the 2014 Global Financial Integrity Report in his address to the High-Level National Side-Event organised by the African Union Development Agency and New Partnership for Africa\u2019s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday in New York, on the margins of the 74th United Nations General Assembly, under the theme, \u201cPromotion of International Cooperation to Combat Illicit Financial Flows and Strengthen Good Practices on Assets Recovery and Return to Foster Sustainable Development,\u201d the Nigerian leader noted that such massive loss of assets, resulted in dearth of resources \u201cto fund public services or to alleviate poverty,\u201d in the country.
According to him, \u201cThis is why, as Africans, we have no choice but to break the back of corruption.\u201d
Acknowledging lack of sufficient capital and corruption as impediments to socio-economic development of the continent, the President emphatically restated his administration\u2019s anti-corruption campaign:
\u201cThat is why our government has made it a war we intend to win.\u00a0 We will give all it takes to ensure there is no hiding place for purveyors of corrupt practices who are truly enemies of the people.\u201d
Stressing the need to strengthen good practices on asset recovery and return, President Buhari said that, \u201cIn the last five years, our government has made significant progress to curb corruption,\u201d adding: \u201cWe have recovered millions of dollars stolen from our country.\u201d
He noted, however, that \u201cthere are still a lot of other funds that are stuck in foreign bank accounts due to international laws, different jurisdictions and justice systems that make it difficult for repatriation.\u201d
Describing Illicit Financial Flows as \u201cillegal movement of funds from one country to another,\u201d President Buhari lamented that, \u201cThese flows deplete Africa\u2019s internally generated revenues, foreign exchange earnings, reduce tax revenues, drain natural resources, facilitate corruption and stunt private sector development.\u201d\u00a0
Citing tax avoidance as another form of illicit financial flow, he quoted the Tax Justice Network and the International Monetary Fund to have estimated over US$200 billion per year as \u201cbeing lost by developing countries when multinational enterprises do not pay taxes in the countries where they made the profit.\u201d
\u201cThis amount is significantly higher than the annual development aid received by these countries which are estimated to be about US$143 billion,\u201d he added.
Commending the organisers of the meeting designed to finding \u201cpragmatic ways to promote international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on asset recovery and return, as an arm of sustainable development policies in Africa,\u201d President Buhari also lauded their \u201cshared commitment to root out corruption from our continent.\u201d\u00a0
According to the Nigerian President, \u201cI am motivated by the belief that, if we join hands, we can bequeath to our children an Africa that is not defined by corruption.\u201d
Emphasizing the imperative of international cooperation towards stemming the incidence of illegal financial flows, President Buhari said, \u201cAny lasting solution to the above challenges will require international cooperation and coordination,\u201d of African countries and their international counterparts. \u00a0
\u201cThis is one reason why the Nigerian Government supports this initiative of AUDA\/NEPAD and remains committed until we ensure that there are no safe-havens for stolen assets from Africa,\u201d he declared.
On his expectations of the outcome of the meeting, the Nigerian leader said:
\u201cI have high expectations for this meeting.\u00a0 At the end of the deliberations, I expect other African leaders, to see the pragmatic ideas on how to strengthen our anti-corruption institutions to reduce or effectively eliminate Illicit Financial Flows.\u00a0
\u201cWe need ideas on how to return the stolen assets to their countries of origin.\u00a0 We also need strategies on how to plug the loopholes that enable companies to avoid paying commensurate taxes in their countries of operations.\u00a0 You should deliberate on practical ideas to enhance global acceptable assets tracing and freezing, and boost the recovery governance framework.\u201d
Wishing the meeting also attended by the Presidents of Zambia and Ethiopia successful discussions, President Buhari said he looked forward to reading its resolutions and recommendations.
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President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that Nigeria lost an estimated US$157.5 billion to illicit financial flows between 2003 and 2012. Quoting from the 2014 Global Financial Integrity Report in his address to the High-Level National Side-Event organised by the African Union Development Agency and New Partnership for Africa\u2019s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Economic and Financial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}