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Alvin Mosioma, executive director of Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), speaks about the challenges of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and lack of effective fiscal regime governing the extractive sector across many African countries.
Newspage: According to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), sub-Saharan African countries loose up to USD50 billion every year to Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). What does this loss means to Africa’s development, in terms of denying African citizens access to basic social services such as health, education and water?
Mosioma: Historically, the African continent and indeed other developing countries, have been seen as net recipients of aid; net recipients of support from abroad. What this study did was turned the conversation on its head in the sense that it provided evidence that not only was the continent not a net recipient but it was actually a net creditor to the world. It showed that there were more resources leaving the continent than coming in.
Yet, this figures are but a tip of the iceberg because even when we talk about USD50 billion, it is just an estimate; it doesn’t represent the actual figures, since a big part of these flows happen in opacity and darkness. Such that you don’t have the ability to really determine the actual numbers, and it is for this reason that the ECA report said for us to be able to determine the actual figures, we will need to increase transparency in the financial systems.
Moreover, what these figures do is, firstly, repudiate the perception of the flow of funds globally. Secondly, the reason why we have these figures is due to the nature of the global financial system which has been designed in such a way that it facilitates outflow of resources than it does inflow of resources, which basically points to the systemic flaw in the global financial systems. Thirdly, this numbers by themselves don’t tell you much, but if you put these figures in the context of the financing gap particularly for the SDGs and Agenda 2063, then you will realize the enormity of these figures.
If you look at the ECA report itself, it comes with three demands: first, we need to track where these resources are coming from and going to i.e we need to put a mechanism that allows African countries to track the flow of these resources. Second, we need to stop the outflow, by making sure we are sealing the loopholes. And thirdly, we need to ensure that African money being held by corrupt elites in Swiss banks and other tax heavens have been retrieved and returned to Africa for the continent’s development.
DISCLAIMER: This interview was originally posted on African NewsPage. To read more follow this link.