Adeosun seeks global support on illicit financial flows

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has called for global support towards addressing the issue of illicit financial flows in Africa.

She added that this would help drive accelerated revenue growth and improve government’s efficiency.

The minister stated this while addressing senior representatives of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund during the spring meetings of both organisation in Washington DC, United States.

Adeosun, according to a statement from her Media Adviser, Mr. Festus Akanbi, stated that addressing illicit financial flows would significantly enhance domestic government revenue and deliver sustainable economic growth.

She said, “The government is focused on resetting the Nigerian economy by addressing our traditional over-reliance on oil revenues and establishing the basis for sustainable non-oil revenue growth.

“To improve non-oil revenues, we have to address illicit capital flows. When stolen money is transferred from Nigeria, or other African countries, there are too few questions asked by those countries that receive the funds, but when we identify those funds as stolen and seek to recover them, there are too many questions being asked.”

The minister added, “There is money sitting in foreign bank accounts that we have spent over a decade trying to recover. That is money that can deliver significant value for Nigeria as we seek to increase spending on critical infrastructure and establish a basis for long term sustainable growth.

“I hope that the Automatic Exchange of Information scheme coming into force next year will be a step towards achieving greater transparency, but we need more collaboration amongst parliamentarians in Africa and across the world to ensure that this situation improves and that recipient countries are held to account.”

Commenting on the agenda to ensure significant reduction in the leakage of public funds and improve efficiency in public expenditure, Adeosun said the Federal Government had put in place measures that would now make it difficult to divert public funds.

She added, “We are going after those who have stolen our money. We have put in place a very successful whistle-blower programme that is delivering results and allows those who report illicit activities to receive up to five per cent of any funds that we recover.

“We are also significantly improving our financial management controls to ensure that it is considerably more difficult for public funds to be diverted. We have to do more though and that means collaboration with the legislature.

“We need tighter tax and financial reporting legislation and to ratify bilateral agreements so that our enforcement agencies are empowered to deliver the results that we need.”