UNGA 2019: Nigeria, Others Lose $70bn To Illicit Financial Flows

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has said that Nigeria and other African countries have lost about $70billion worth of resources to illicit financial flows every year.
The minister, who spoke with our diplomatic correspondent exclusively at the ongoing United Nations General Assembly in New York, spoke extensively on the problem of illicit financial flows in Africa.
The event organised at the United Nations Headquarters saw Nigeria’s President and other African Heads of State, including Zambia and Ethiopia in attendance.
Onyeama said that a large number of participants took part in the conference and discussed illicit financial flows out of Africa and the anti-corruption steps taken by the Nigerian government.
“We engaged very robustly in this session and really articulated to the global community Nigerian priorities and look to also show some leadership of Nigeria and to attract support from the international community,” the minister said.
Illicit financial flows cost African countries, at least, $50billion every year, more than the total sum of development aid the continent receives, according to a 2018 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
According to the estimates of the high-level panel of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), these illicit flows have been increasing since the start of the century, when they stood at less than $20 billion a year.