Digital economy now a major driver of illicit financial flows in Africa – Dipeolu

Dgital economy have become a major source of Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) in Africa as money leaving the continent illegally continues to rise, Adeyemi Dipeolu, Special Assistant to the Vice- President on Economic Matters has said.

Dipeolu said leading Multinational companies carrying out online transactions in Nigeria and other African countries are not paying taxes, while informing that the money leaving Africa through Illicit flows is currently at $80 billion annually and still rising.

“Some of the biggest companies in the world are doing business in a lot of our countries and they are not paying any taxes, because they claim not to have Permanent establishment in our countries , but they are doing business, nearly everybody has a Google account or shops in Amazon, but our countries don’t get the benefits of those business activities, it is imperative to pay attention to that”, he said.

“IFF from Africa are large and increasing, in 2000, we are dealing with just over 10 billion dollars in IFF, now we are at about 80 billion”, Dipeolu added.

Dipeolu said this at a Webinar on Understanding Illicit Financial Flows (IFFS) organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in Abuja.

According to him, Stopping illicit flows requires international cooperation and local political will, but regrets that there is no global frame work yet to do that.

Bolaji Owasanoye, Chairman, ICPC called for conscious actions by international and local actors to address IFF, which he notes is draining the resources of African countries with negative effects on domestic governance.

“Many African countries are struggling to find the money that they need to develop, stopping this requires administrative action, some require legal reforms, technology intervention” he said.