President Muhammadu Buhari has called on Africans in the Diaspora to come up with suggestions on how to curtail the menace of corruption on the continent. Speaking in New York on Wednesday at the High Level Media Launch on “Illicit Financial Flows and the Fight against Corruption: Curbing the Existence of Safe Havens – the Role of Africans in the Fight against Corruption,” organised by the NEPAD/APRM Nigeria on the margins of the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, he also enjoined them to support measures against “Safe Havens” for illicit financial outflows from Africa. Describing corruption as a “cancer” which required global efforts to contain, President Buhari recalled that the negative impact of corruption on the continent informed the “resolve of African Heads of State and Government to remain committed to the fight against corruption,” and the declaration of 2018, as the African year of combating corruption with the overriding theme: Winning the Fight Against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation. The president expressed appreciation to his fellow African leaders for the honour bestowed on him as the African Union Anti – Corruption Champion to lead the continental War Against Corruption in 2018 and beyond, noting that the change agenda of his administration “has overhauled, revitalised as well as institutionalized the machinery for an out and out fight against corruption and its agents, with a particular focus on illicit financial flows.”While acknowledging that the social and economic costs of corruption and illicit financial flows are massive, and have continued to stunt the development of Africa, President Buhari cited a 2015 study by an African Union Panel led by Thabo Mbeki which estimated US$50 Billion illicit financial flows out of the continent every year. He said: “According to the report, about US$2.5billion of the US$50billion of Illicit Financial Flows was in respect of commercial activities.

Source: Nigerian Tribune September 27, 2018 11:25 UTC