A group of civil society experts has issued a set of recommendations to address Africa’s illicit financial flows (IFFs).

‘Accelerating the IFF Agenda for African Countries’ highlights fourteen steps the experts reckon African leaders could adopt to curb IFFs.

Among the recommendations are suggestions to establish a multi-agency approach to fight IFFs, to collect information to identify corporate ownership, and several tax-related measures.

Trade focus

In measures that specifically focus on trade-based financial crime, the report recommends that governments should establish official measurement mechanisms for extracted natural resources.

Other trade-oriented recommendations include the introduction of laws clearly prohibiting trade mis-invoicing and the establishment of transfer pricing units to monitor trade between affiliated companies.

Policy agenda

The recommendations urge leaders to create specific IFF policies, including multi-agency units to focus on policy implementation.

Countries could also promote financial transparency by establishing or enhancing corporate registries and require beneficial ownership information as part of the registration process.

The report also recommends beneficial ownership is disclosed by bidders for all government contracts.

Report sponsors

The report was sponsored by several civil society organisations, including Global Financial Integrity, Tax Justice Network-Africa and the Pan African Lawyers’ Union.

‘Accelerating the IFF Agenda for African Countries’ can be found here.

Categories: Trade Based Financial crimes News