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Africa must plug $580bn leak to reduce debt – Adesina

African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has emphasised the need for African leaders to end corruption and illicit capital flows to deal with the continent’s growing debt pile, which is approaching $2 trillion.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Adesina noted that curbing outflows was crucial to funding infrastructure, education, health, and job creation.
The continent, yearly, loses money through illegal channels such as tax evasion, trade misinvoicing, corruption, smuggling, and money laundering.
According to him, these outflows drain resources that could otherwise fund infrastructure, education, health, and job creation.
The AfDB estimated in May that Africa loses about $1.6 billion daily to “financial leakages,” including $90 billion a year to illicit financial flows.
The continent faced an annual infrastructure backlog of up to $170 billion, which is critical to address for economic development and job creation.
Adesina noted that these outflows drain resources that could otherwise fund essential public services and infrastructure.
Adesina emphasised the need to reduce leakages to illicit capital and corruption to keep resources on the continent and meet infrastructure needs.
He also stressed the importance of access to more concessional financing and debt restructuring where necessary.
“It doesn’t matter how much water you pour into a bucket if the bucket is leaking.”
“If you’re able to reduce the leakages to illicit capital, also corruption and all of these things, Africa will be able to keep a lot of these resources and meet the amount of infrastructure it needs, ” he said.

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