Business
Illicit Financial Flow: Don Wants Empowerment Of Security Agencies

Prof Jeffery Owens of the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, Austria, has in Abuja, called on the Federal Government to provide more empowerment to law enforcement agencies to aid their fight against illicit financial flow.
Owens, a professor of Public Law and Tax Matters, said this while addressing newsmen at a conference on Tax and Good Governance in Africa.
He said if more resources were provided to the agencies, it would help to reduce the amount of money lost by the country due to illicit financial flow.
He commended efforts of the government in bringing together tax, customs officials, the finance unit and other stakeholders to deliberate on ways of resolving illicit financial flow in the country.
He said “that is the dream team; we need a seamless cooperation between this different departments.’’
He said, corruption was a shared problem and not peculiar to Nigeria or Africa alone.
“I give you an example within the European Union, they lose 15 billion dollars every year to fraud and that is part of the financial year.
“There are a lot of corruption cases in developed countries.
“So I think we have to see this as a shared problem which will only be resolved if we have real cooperation among all countries around the world.
The don reiterated the commitment of global partners such as the World Bank and the United Nations in the fight against corruption in Nigeria and Africa.
Owens commended efforts and commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari in the fight against corruption, saying that political support was very important in the crusade.
Owens urged the various countries holding Nigeria’s funds to return such monies to help the country’s infrastructure.
“Not enough has been returned, this is your money; the countries that are holding the money have to make a lot effort to get this money back.
“If you look around Africa, it is less than one per cent of stolen assets that have been returned and that is not acceptable.
“You think of the roads, the hospitals, the education, the children that can be taken out of poverty with 50 billion dollars.
“So I think we have to stop just talking the talk and start working the work; we need action; we need a zero tolerance of financial crimes,’’ he said.
The Tide source reports that Africa looses an estimated 50 billion dollars yearly to illicit financial flows through money laundering, corruption and tax evasion.
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Blue Economy: Minister Seeks Lifeline In Blue Bond Amid Budget Squeeze

Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy is seeking new funding to implement its ambitious 10-year policy, with officials acknowledging that public funding is insufficient for the scale of transformation envisioned.
Adegboyega Oyetola, said finance is the “lever that will attract long-term and progressive capital critical” and determine whether the ministry’s goals take off.
“Resources we currently receive from the national budget are grossly inadequate compared to the enormous responsibility before the ministry and sector,” he warned.
He described public funding not as charity but as “seed capital” that would unlock private investment adding that without it, Nigeria risks falling behind its neighbours while billions of naira continue to leak abroad through freight payments on foreign vessels.
He said “We have N24.6 trillion in pension assets, with 5 percent set aside for sustainability, including blue and green bonds,” he told stakeholders. “Each time green bonds have been issued, they have been oversubscribed. The money is there. The question is, how do you then get this money?”
The NGX reckons that once incorporated into the national budget, the Debt Management Office could issue the bonds, attracting both domestic pension funds and international investors.
Yet even as officials push for creative financing, Oloruntola stressed that the first step remains legislative.
“Even the most innovative financial tools and private investments require a solid public funding base to thrive.
It would be noted that with government funding inadequate, the ministry and capital market operators see bonds as alternative financing.
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