The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN), has stated that illicit financial flows (IFFs) out of Africa far outweighed grants from international development partners to the continent.
This was stated by Owansanoye during a recent meeting with the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) leadership at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
He lamented the African continent’s IFF challenge and expressed hope that a collaboration with DTCA in terms of peer learning, information, intelligence, and experiences could go a long way toward addressing the threat.
“ICPC is the Secretariat for the inter-agency committee on IFFs in Africa and one of the biggest problems that Africa is facing is the issue of capital flight. The amount of capital that leaves Africa is far more than the development grants that it gets, and this has been a recurrent issue over the years.
“We are not averse to having a collaboration with DTCA because we have our foot on the ground. We will designate officers to look at the broad landscape and areas of collaboration,” he said.
Earlier in his speech, the Director-General of DTCA, Ambassador Rabiu Dagari, stated that they have the capacity to bring all Africans together on corruption issues in the overall interest of the continent’s development.
He encouraged the anti-graft commission and other anti-corruption organizations to expand widespread advocacy in their fight against corruption, Ambassador Dagari also urged the Federal Government to grant DTCA access to funds held by the Nigerian Technical Corporation Fund (NTCF), claiming that this would help in some of the collaborations being considered.
The Provost of the Anti-Corruption Academy (ACAN), Professor Olatunde Babawale, who responded to an earlier appeal made by the DTCA delegation for capacity trainings offered by the academy, noted that the ICPC academy had developed cost effective and hybrid programmes that DTCA can take advantage of.
Related posts:
Buhari demands ICC support against illicit financial flows
Nigeria lost $157.5b to illicit financial flows – President Buhari
National Development plan will aid Economic Development -FG
Global Tech Africa Partners US Embassy For Africa’s Development
Farmers in Greece drive tractors to parliament to demand financial aid
UN releases report on illicit drug trafficking in West Africa
AfDB to leverage private sector to address financial gaps in Africa
Works, Steel Development Ministries To Work For Development
