THE Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has stated that Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) out of Africa far outweigh grants from international development partners to the continent.
The chairman of the commission, Bolaji Owasanoye, stated this during a meeting with the leadership of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
In a statement issued by Azuka Ogugua, the commission’s spokesperson, Owasanoye decried the challenge facing the African continent on IFFs and expressed hope that collaboration with DTCA in terms of peer learning and sharing of information, intelligence and experiences could go a long way in addressing the menace.
“ICPC is the secretariat for the inter-agency committee on IFFs in Africa, and one of the biggest problems that Africa is facing is the issue of capital flight.
“The amount of capital that leaves Africa is far more than the development grants that it gets, and this has been a recurrent issue over the years.
“We are not averse to having collaboration with DTCA because we have our foot on the ground.
“We will designate officers to look at the broad landscape and areas of collaboration,” he said.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Director-General of DTCA, Rabiu Dagari, said they can integrate all Africans on corruption issues in the overall interest of the continent’s development.
“I want to see how we can work together. We can develop content papers and then reach out to other African countries for their participation with you to share ideas and to see the problems being encountered and ventilate and see what really needs to be done to reduce the level of corruption in the African continent that is holding us back,” Dagari said.
He encouraged the ICPC and other anti-corruption agencies to expand widespread advocacy in their fight against corruption and urged the Federal Government to grant DTCA access to funds domiciled with Nigeria’s Technical Corporation Fund (NTCF).
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