VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
THE Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Bolaji Owasanoye, has charged African governments to prioritise the recovery of assets at domestic, regional and global levels, including return of artworks and artefacts.
Speaking during a virtual Commonwealth regional conference for anti-corruption agencies in Africa, Owosanoye said that corruption and illicit financial flows had continued to hamper domestic resource mobilisation across the continent.
According to him, Africa cannot eradicate poverty or meet sustainable development goals without improving domestic resource mobilisation.
“The reality on ground is that domestic resource mobilisation cannot improve if corruption is not diminished; illicit financial flow from the continent is not reversed, and fiscal governance from revenue and expenditure sides is not improved.
“We need to reverse the anomaly of Africa being a net creditor to the world yet burdened by debt,” he stated.
He further disclosed that Nigeria recovered between $600m and $700m assets in the last six years.
“In Nigeria, precisely Benin, Edo State, two major artefacts have been returned while the country has recovered between $600m and $700m assets in the last six years,” he said.
He further advocated the need to strengthen both legal and financial institutions to further aid the process of asset recovery.
This, according to him, should include establishment of funds, trusts and dedicated African escrow accounts to be held by regional financial institutions.
On the Common African Position on Asset Recovery (CAPAR), Owasanoye said the policy and advocacy instrument was to assist Africa identify, repatriate and effectively manage assets while respecting the sovereignty of member-states.
He urged African countries to ensure accountability, transparency and measures to boost public confidence in the management of recovered assets, including monitoring of use by the civil society organizations and the media.
In addition, the ICPC boss called for the adoption of policy on use of recovered assets for development goals or implementation of any other social investment project as deemed fit by member states.
In her remarks at the conference, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, emphasised the need for African countries to tackle corruption, noting that social and economic resources were increasingly stretched.
“Corruption leads to illicit financial flows. Africa has lost $1.26trn to illicit financial flows while $50bn is lost annually by the continent.
“Corruption and illicit financial flows need to be brought to the front burner as they have continued to pose enormous challenge to the continent,” Scotland said.
The Commonwealth secretary-general urged the anti-corruption agencies to strengthen their oversight function.
“We need to continue to improve and strengthen our capacities. We, at the Commonwealth Secretariat, will greatly work with member-countries to realise that goal as well as the United Nations Development Goals,” she added.
