By Rachael Ishaya,
Unarguably, poverty, flood, corruption, unemployment, poor infrastructure and the Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) from Africa, among other challenges, remain impediments to the development of the continent.
Observers note in particular that IFFs, such as tax evasion, abusive transfer of money, mispricing and transfer of funds acquired by fraudulent means into bank accounts abroad, are rampant among African countries.
In a bid to set a development agenda for the continent, African leaders including former heads of states, business tycoons and civil social groups, met recently in a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss methods of addressing the challenges.
Also known as African Union Conference of Ministers of the Economy and Finance and ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the conference took place against the backdrop of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda 2030.
In the light of this, African countries are confronted with a dual transition by signing Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063.
The conference with the theme: “Towards an integrated and coherent approach to implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the SDGs’’ was aimed at generating ideas on how to fund and achieve Africa’s Agenda 2063 and SDGs.
During the conference, African ministers reaffirmed the importance of aligning Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the SDGs.
Agenda 2063 is a 20-goal Action Plan for all segments of African society to work together to build a prosperous and united Africa based on shared values.
The SDGs, expected to be achieved by 2030, comprises 17 goals, 169 targets and more than 500 indicators that follow and expand on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Participants in the conference believe that the two programmes, with focus on ending poverty, fighting climate change, IFFs, hunger, improving health and education, sustaining economic growth, reducing inequality within and among countries, if well funded, will develop African nations.
They insist that if Africa should stop depending on foreign aid and finance its own development strategies, especially Agenda 2063 and the SGDs, curbing IFFs will be a viable option.
In his speech, former Thabo Mbeki President of South Africa noted that “Africa is robbed of about 50 billion dollars annually.’’
In the same vein, Mr Tunde Aremu, an official of Actionaid Nigeria, said that a record showed that “in Nigeria alone, 2.9 billion dollars (N573 billons) is lost annually to IFFs.’’
Therefore, the former Minister of Finance in Nigeria, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, observed that “for Africa to achieve its lofty development goals, it has to address the pressing issue of IFFs.
“Many African countries have loopholes in their tax codes. This has allowed multinationals and other big corporate organisations to dodge paying tax.
“The money we lose through this is sufficient to address the pressing needs of the continent, so, getting our tax administration and polices right is the first step.’’
Similarly, Mrs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said Africa should ensure that the money that had been taken away from the continent was repatriated.
“Everybody talks about corruption but we say let those corrupt resources that were brought into western countries illegally from our continent be sent back to our continent.
“The debate must go on because we need money for child care, maternal care and many social issues.
“It doesn’t matter how this money will be used, the important thing is that they must come back,’’ she said.
In her view, Actionaid International, Tax Power Campaign Coordinator in Africa, Miss Luckystar Miyandazi, said Africa had to act in harmony to tackle tax avoidance practices by many multinationals and large corporations.
“The quest to harness the resources of the continent for the purpose of achieving positive socio-economic transformation within the next 50 years will only be possible if nations are able to plug all resource loopholes,’’ she said.
However, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, said since the country’s government was funding its budget mostly with non-oil revenue, blocking revenue leakages was top on its list.
“We are also expanding our tax base. We are trying to bring as many people and organisations that are in the informal sector which are not paying tax to come into the tax net,’’ she said.
Suggesting methods of funding the programmes, Dr Anthony Maruping, Commissioner for Economic Affairs of the African Union Commission, said stopping IFFs was one of the best ways to finance Agenda 2063 and the SDGs.
According to him, the commission estimates that more than 246 billion dollars is required to half poverty and inequality in Africa, while the continent loses an estimated 50 billion dollars annually to IFFs.
He stressed the commission’s resolve to block leakage and using it to finance critical development projects that would eradication of poverty and inequality in Africa.
He called on African countries to embrace an integrated and coherent approach to implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Agenda 2063 and SDGs.
By and large, participants observe that checking IFFs from among developing countries will promote development and end poverty, urging African leaders to implement policies that will curtail tax dodging.(NANFeatures)
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