20 September 2007

africa's malady!

I decided to publish this comment from our anonimous contributor who commented on my last post "good news for africa,but who gets these resources?".I was particularly impressed with his critical view of what really happens with most governments in Africa.I thus thought it wise to publish his words in the post section.Read and comment!

Africa has also suffered particularly because the proceeds of corruption tend to
be banked or spent outside of the continent. Capital flight is possibly Africa’s
biggest financial problem. The African Union estimates that $148 billion a year
leaves the continent because of corruption28. This represents a quarter of the
continent’s GDP29. Other estimates of the amount of total illicit proceeds coming
out of Africa (including corrupt, commercial and criminal proceeds) are in the
order of $100-200 billion30. This dwarfs the aid and debt relief Africa is receiving:
“We have been putting some $25 billion a year of foreign aid into Africa in the most recent years.
Compare that with my estimate of the amount of money that goes illegally out of Africa and
ultimately into Western coffers, $100-200 billion. In other words, for every $1 of foreign aid that
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we are generously handing out across the top of the table, we are taking back some $4-8 in dirty
money under the table.”31
Furthermore, in Africa’s case the outflow of illicit money tends to be permanent ----
From a report by the Africa All Party Parliamentary Group (UL) 2006.

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