Title Nigeria Accounts For 80 Percent Capital Flight In West Africa – UN Report
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released a report decrying the illicit financial flows from Africa, saying Nigeria accounted for 80 percent capital flight from West Africa and 46 percent from the entire continent. The UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa 2020 Report, released on September 29 is titled, “Tackling illicit financial flows for sustainable development bin Africa.” The UNCTAD report stated that capital flight, which captures trade imbalances and tax evasion, between 2013 and 2015 stood at $88.6bn on average in Africa, with Nigeria having the largest share of $41bn, Egypt $17.5bn and South Africa $14.1bn. It said high levels of illicit financial flows, prevalence of mis invoicing and capital flight, indicate that many African governments do not benefit from a significant portion of their international trade transactions and experience significant losses in capital and foreign exchange. The UNCTAD report identified corruption and money laundering as some of the other causes of capital flight in the continent while calling for more government regulations.