Reps move to save Nigeria $40.7bn in annual capital flight

The House of Representatives on Tuesday took steps to save Nigeria the estimated capital flight of $40.7 billion, representing 46 percent of the total of $88.6 billion that leaves the African continent through money laundry, tax evasion, diverted revenues, and offshore investments, among others, annually.

The House urged the Federal Government to develop effective mechanism and strategy to prevent the persistent occurrence and address the menace of capital flight in Nigeria.

The lawmakers also asked the Federal Government to partner with private institutions to go into public-private partnership contractual agreements to build worldclass medical facilities in major cities in Nigeria or upgrade and equip the existing ones with adequate facilities based on build, operate and transfer by private investors in a way that will allow the investors to manage the same for an agreed period.

The House arrived at these decisions while adopting a motion on: “urgent need to address the menace of capital flight in Nigeria moved by Afolabi Olalekan (APC, Osun) and mandated its committee on legislative compliance to ensure implementation

Presenting the motion, Olalekan noted that capital flight has been one of the unresolved and persistent macroeconomic problems plaguing the nation for decades.

He said: “Ironically, Nigeria is ranked among the highest producers of crude oil in the world and earns a huge amount of foreign exchange from its exports but still falls short of capital to develop, maintain and upgrade its infrastructure due to the magnitude of capital flight from Nigeria when compared to accumulated domestic investments”.

The lawmaker noted that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated that about $88.6 billion per year leave the continent through money laundry, tax evasion, diverted revenues, offshore investments and other forms of capital flights, with Nigeria accounting for an estimated 46 percent of the total capital flight or $40.7 billion per year.

According to him, “the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Bulletin in 2015 which showed that the net flow of capital flight from Nigeria from 1986 to 2015 was quite worrisome, with Nigeria losing a colossal sum of over $8.8 trillion”.

L-R: Ajibola Olabisi Bankole, deputy director, NAICOM; Seye Awojobi, CIBN registrar; Joshua Etopidiok, NDIC director, SIID; Adetutu Ogunaike, country board chair, AFOS Nig LTE; Idowu Akinlade, deputy director/head MFB Coordinating Group, OFISD, CBN; Mujidat Isiaka, deputy director, NDIC, and Balogun Stanley, director, banking examination, NDIC, at the 6th annual symposium of the Nigerian Microfinance Platform (NMP) organised by the Microfinance Learning and Development Centre (MLDC) in Lagos.