Africa loses $50bn yearly through illicit means - Akufo-Addo

07:37 - 04 February 2018

He made the startling revelation at the 3rd International Conference on the “Replenishment of the Funds of the Global Partnership for Education” in Senegal by quoting a report on illicit flows of capital out of Africa led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki.

“Thabo Mbeki’s Commission that looked at the illicit flows of capital out of Africa, has estimated that for every year, in the last ten years, $50 billion goes out of Africa through illicit means," he said.

He quizzed: "Can you imagine what those monies, if we had our eyes open, and we were not complicit in that illicit outflow, would mean for the capacity of our nations?”

The challenge, therefore, confronting Africa, the President opined, is “how we can organise ourselves to make sure that the wealth, the huge wealth of this great continent, at least, in the first time in modern history, is used on behalf on the peoples of the continent, and not those outside.”