Elites plundering Africa
“Every year, Africa loses between $30 and $60 billion to illicit financial flow by corrupted leaders and elites.” This is between 3 times more than foreign aid Africa receives (according the OECD) and ten times more (according to the Tax Justice Network).
“African political elites break down existing governance structures in order to loot national wealth.” The Panama Papers link “72 current and former heads of state to shell companies and other obscure offshore vehicles.” Actually, these elites “have built the same wealth plundering structures as the colonialists.”
“The story of corruption in Africa is not new: tens of millions of dollars missing from Kenya’s ministry of health; billions in mining exports never reaching government coffers in the DR Congo; and cabinet members in Nigeria using bribes received in exchange for lucrative government contracts.”
“A huge trove of leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm that’s a major player in offshore tax havens has revealed the secret companies controlled by members of the African elite, from Kenya’s deputy chief of justice and Rwanda’s former intelligence chief to the son of former United Nations general secretary Kofi Annan.”
What does it have to do with Europe? Part of the money flows to Europe, e.g. to Paris’ condos, to tax paradises Switzerland and the Netherlands, and who knows…
Once again, the Africa’s citizens pay the price.
Solutions? Civil organisations like Tax Justice put the issue on the agenda. And African activists are trying to make a difference in their countries.
Read all: The Plunder route to Panama
