By JUDITH NAMUTOWE in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia –
AFRICAN leaders have been urged to invest heavily in financial intelligence units to close loopholes that allow for Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs).
First secretary of economics at the Zambian Embassy in Ethiopia, Joseph Chinyemba said there was need for African leaders to consider investing in financial intelligence units at both national and regional levels.
Mr Chinyemba was speaking in response to a presentation on the need for African countries to finance Agenda 2063 during the on-going 9th Joint Annual Meeting.
The 9th Joint Annual Meeting is being held under the theme ‘Towards an integrated and coherent approach to the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)”.
Africa is looking for alternative funding for the implementation of the Agenda 2063.
“If we are going to have an Africa that is going to finance its own development, we need to critically look at the challenges the continent is facing with regards to loss of revenue through IFFs,” Mr Chinyemba said.
The report on the High Level Panel in Africa indicates that the continent was losing more than US$50 billion annually through IFFs.
However, the African Union Commission and Economic Commission for Africa (AUC-ECA) estimates that $246 billion additional financial resources were required to address poverty and inequality simultaneously.
This means that losing $50 billion annually to IFFs which could be used to finance critical developmental projects and tackle poverty and inequality in Africa, was a source of concern.
Mr Chinyemba said the issue of IFFs was a serious challenge that the continent was faced with and called for action from African leaders especially the ministers of the Economy, Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
“If African leaders do not put in place preventive measures aimed at mitigating losses from IFFs, the continent will continue to lose resources through such vices,” he said.
Mr Chinyemba said the Zambian Government proposed that African countries should show greater political will to end IFFs and protect the continent’s economic future.