Former South African president Thabo Mbeki took aim at various multinationals stealing billions of dollars out of Africa through illicit financial flows.
Mbeki said there was need for African governments to increase efforts in closing loopholes used by multinationals and local authorities in facilitating financial flows. The Mbeki-led report of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows has carried out investigations across the regions since it was established in February 2012.
“Our continent is annually losing more than 50 billion US dollars through illicit financial outflows,” remarked Mbeki reporting to the Pan African Parliament. “Our panel is convinced that Africa’s retention of the capital that is generated on the continent and should legitimately be retained in Africa, must be an important part of the resources to finance the Post-2015 Development Agenda.”
According to the report, the flows relate principally to commercial transactions, tax evasion, criminal activities such as money laundering, and drugs, arms and human trafficking, bribery, corruption and abuse of office. “Countries that are rich in natural resources and countries with inadequate or non-existent institutional architecture are the most at risk of falling victim to illicit financial flows,” said the report.
The report also claims that over the last 50 years, Africa is estimated to have lost in excess of one trillion US dollars in illicit financial flows added this amount was roughly equivalent to all of the official development assistance received by Africa during the same timeframe.
Mbeki’s High Level Panel report also claimed that, these outflows were of serious concern, given inadequate growth, high levels of poverty, resource needs and the changing global landscape of official development assistance.
The Economic Freedom Fighters’ Member of Parliament and part of the South African delegation to the Pan African Parliament, Floyd Shivambu said his country had lost over 120 billion US dollars in ten years through illicit financial flows.
The head of South Africa’s delegation to the Pan African Parliament, Hunadi Mateme welcomed the report and called for greater action from the region. Mateme’s call was supported by Edward Mulebwe, a Member of Parliament from Mozambique who said Africa needed to extract from President Mbeki’s report and ensure regional wealth stays in the continent.
Mozambique’s Mulembwe is running for the Pan African Parliament presidency currently held by a Nigerian national. If Mulembwe wins he becomes the first in Southern Africa to hold such a position.
