{"id":127016,"date":"2026-05-12T17:24:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=127016"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:24:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:24:39","slug":"africa-loses-89bn-annually-to-illicit-financial-flows-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/africa-loses-89bn-annually-to-illicit-financial-flows-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa\u00a0 Loses $89bn Annually to Illicit Financial Flows \u2014 Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Lizzy Chirkpi<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tax and financial experts have raised an alarm over the massive revenue losses suffered by African countries through illicit financial flows (IFFs), revealing that the continent loses an estimated $89 billion annually to tax evasion, profit shifting and other harmful financial practices.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The warning was issued on Tuesday during an interactive session between members of the Economic Community of West African States Parliament, the West African Tax Administration Forum and the Tax Justice Network Africa at the ongoing 2026 First Ordinary Session in Abuja.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The session focused on strategies for strengthening domestic resource mobilisation and advancing tax harmonisation across the ECOWAS region.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the experts, illicit financial flows driven largely by multinational corporations and weak tax systems continue to deprive African nations of critical resources needed for development.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAfrica has a prevalent problem of illicit financial flows, and at least 65 per cent of these could be categorised as commercially-driven,\u201d the experts stated.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe main practices that could lead to IFFs are tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax misinvoicing and other harmful tax practices. These harmful practices haemorrhage the available resources that can be used for development of the continent.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">They noted that beyond the estimated $89 billion lost yearly, Africa also faces a domestic resource mobilisation gap of about $194 billion annually.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The experts stressed that tax harmonisation within the ECOWAS sub-region remained critical to blocking loopholes exploited by corporations and criminal financial networks.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cTax harmonisation is the fiscal backbone of ECOWAS integration. Without it, the region will continue to lose revenue through loopholes, smuggling, opacity and profit shifting,\u201d they warned.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking during the session, Dr. Nita Belemaobgo, Research Manager at WATAF, said regional collaboration and data-driven reforms were necessary to improve transparency and accountability in tax administration across West Africa.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She explained that WATAF\u2019s goal was to support ECOWAS in implementing tax directives aimed at aligning fiscal policies among member states.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Danicius Sengbeh, WATAF\u2019s Communications and Information Technology Manager, emphasised the importance of parliamentary oversight in tackling tax leakages and improving revenue generation.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to him, the issue goes beyond taxation and directly affects governance and economic sovereignty in the region.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThis engagement is about sovereignty, fairness, accountability and West Africa\u2019s future,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Also speaking, Dr. Zandile Ndebele of TJNA urged lawmakers across the region to enact legislation that would ensure African citizens benefited more directly from their countries\u2019 natural resources and internally generated revenues.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt\u2019s possible to introduce legislation for domestic beneficiation to gain more resources and revenues, apart from gaining from just taxes,\u201d she said while addressing the theme: \u201cAddressing Tax-Related Illicit Financial Flows through Legislative Frameworks and Transparency.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The experts further urged African governments to strengthen laws guiding the extractive sector, monitor tax incentives granted to multinational companies and improve transparency in mining agreements.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Solomon Adoga of TJNA warned that Africa must aggressively protect its taxing rights to reduce dependence on foreign support and external borrowing.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe must look at where we are losing revenue as Africans. We don\u2019t need to be reliant on other countries outside Africa,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">They also called for stronger regional cooperation, information sharing, digital modernisation of tax systems and coordinated implementation of tax reforms across ECOWAS member states.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The experts commended countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast for pushing stronger advocacy around fair tax rights and revenue allocation on the continent.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lizzy Chirkpi Tax and financial experts have raised an alarm over the massive revenue losses suffered by African countries through illicit financial flows (IFFs), revealing that the continent loses&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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