AU Report Says N6.87Tr is Stolen from Nigeria Yearly

A High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa adopted on Sunday by African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government at their summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia said about $40.9billion (about N6.87trillion) of an estimated $60billion (about N10.08trillion) lost through such transfers from Africa are traced to Nigeria.

Nigeria, the world’s seventh largest producer of hydrocarbon, the report says accounts for about 68.1 per cent of the total revenue Africa is losing annually as a result of illegal transfer of revenues abroad.

According to Premium Times, the report of the Thabo Mbeki led panel, also identified Egypt and Morocco as the other countries with the largest estimates of illicit financial flows statistics of $28.2billion and $20.3billion respectively.

The funds are stolen through corruption, tax evasion and illegal transfer of profits by multinationals, the panel said.

Nigeria, which produces an average of 2.3million barrels of oil daily as the leading hydrocarbon producer in Africa, is being ravaged by poverty and underdevelopment.

In its 15-point findings, the panel noted that ending illicit financial flows is a political decision by the various governments as it involved issues of abusive transfer pricing, trade mis-invoicing, tax evasion, aggressive tax avoidance, double taxation, tax incentives, unfair contracts, financial secrecy, money laundering, smuggling, trafficking and abuse of entrusted power.