Nigeria loses N53.2tr to illicit financing in 14 yrs

The House of Representatives has called for stringent measures in tackling Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) as Nigeria has lost $140 billion (about N53.2 trillion) to this in 14 years.

The call followed the adoption of a motion by Rep. Ochiglegor Idagbo during plenary on Thursday with emphasis on anti-graft agencies and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) helping to tackle this.

Citing Global Financial Integrity 2014 report, Idagbo said Nigeria lost $140bn to illicit financial flows between 2000 and 2014 executed through crude oil and commercial activities mispricing.

He said Nigeria was ranked among the global top 30 countries having Illicit

Financial Outflows by dollar value adding that, $8.3bn was involved in 2015 alone.

He said the loss was as a result of Multinational Corporations’ neglect, failure or refusal to pay taxes, despite generating substantial profits.

He further expressed concern that the statistics which show that the amount of revenues lost annually is more than the sums provided as Development Aid to developing countries including Nigeria. “Yet neither of the aforementioned figures matches the estimated $15 and $18bn Nigeria loses to IFFs annually hence Nigeria continues to struggle with growing inequality, poor infrastructure and lacking service delivery,” he added. The lawmaker lamented that, despite having at least 12 institutions and agencies responsible for tackling IFF and related crimes, Nigeria continues to have weak regulatory structures and complicity in other financial secrecy.

The House mandated its Committees on Finance, Anti-Corruption, Financial Crimes, Banking and Currency and, Insurance and Actuarial Matters to investigate this.