Illicit Financial Flows: AU Assesses Nigeria, Others’ Implementation Status

The African Union is assessing the national response and implementation status of the recommendations of the regional body’s High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in 13 out of the 55 member countries.

The countries are Nigeria, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania and Tunisia.

The assessment is to cover all African countries.

The Senior Adviser to the AU High Level Panel on IFFs from Africa, Ambassador Maxwell Mkwezalamba and the Head of Secretariat of the AU High Level Panel on IFFs from Africa, Ms. Souad Aden-Osman, made this known at a technical validation workshop held at the office of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital.

The technical validation workshop was convened by the ICPC in collaboration with the Inter-Agency Committee on Stopping Illicit Financial Flows from Nigeria and the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA).

Ambassador Mkwezalamba disclosed that the national assessment reports would cover the state of IFFs from African countries, and ongoing efforts of African governments to reduce IFFs, in line with the 24th AU Assembly decisions on IFFs from Africa.

He noted that the assessment reports would form the annual report of the Chairman of the AU-HLP to the African Union Commission, as well as provide baseline information to guide the design of possible interventions aimed at strengthening the capacities of AU member states to combat illicit financial flows and mobilise domestic revenues.

He said, “the reports to be prepared includes, country consolidated responses, in line with the recommendations/decisions of the AU-HLP, a synthesis report covering, among others, main IFF risks, whether the 2015 AU Assembly Decisions on IFFs from Africa have been adopted, whether there is a mechanism to coordinate the state institutions involved in combating IFFs and its effectiveness, and the capacity needs of the institutions involved in combating IFFs.

 “Also expected, is a full report describing the wider economic context impacting on the country’s IFF risk exposure, determining the IFF channels and the scale of the outflows through the various channels, and assessing the country’s exposure to tax havens and the state of implementation of the 24th AU Assembly decisions on IFFs from Africa.” Ambassador Mkwezalamba explained.

Also, the Head of Secretariat of the AU HLP on IFFs from Africa, Ms. Souad Aden-Osman, believes that the assessment was the second phase of the panel’s work and would focus on national level actions by African Member States.

She assured that the Secretariat of the would support the efforts of the Inter-Agency Committee on Stopping Illicit Financial Flows from Nigeria and African countries to ensure timely finalization of the response matrix and synthesis report, as well as the preparation of the final report.

On the inauguration of a Technical Committee on Domestic Resource Mobilization, Aden-Osman said it would boost the capacity of African governments to adopt and implement efficient fiscal policies as the basis for better resource mobilisation.

She said, “this will boost African Governments’ capacities to adopt and implement efficient fiscal policies as the basis for better revenue collection, public expenditure management, and debt management.”

Also speaking, the Chairman Nigeria’s Anti-graft Agency the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related office Commission ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye SAN, lauded the AU High Level Panel chaired by former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, for placing IFFs on the global agenda as well as the inclusion of IFFs in the Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 16 Target 4).

He said, “the event highlights the fact that success in advocacy needs to be matched by continuous research to deepen understanding of the phenomenon of IFFs, its causes, facilitators, and how it can be stemmed.”

Owasanoye noted that the Policy instruments and actions at domestic and international levels are also crucial.