Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar has called for international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and ensure the return of stolen crude oil from London.
Addressing the 6th Annual General Assembly of the Network of Anti-corruption Institutions in West Africa, Tuggar emphasized the need for global action to tackle corruption and illicit financial flows, which he said were closely tied.
“African countries lose an estimated $8.6 billion yearly to illicit financial flows, equivalent to around three per cent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Products,” Tuggar said. “These funds, often hidden in tax havens and opaque financial systems, represent stolen resources that could have been used to build schools, hospitals, roads, and other critical infrastructure.”
Tuggar stressed that regional cooperation alone was not enough to curb illicit financial flows and called for international support to ensure transparency in local financial systems and end the provision of safe havens for illicit funds. He also highlighted the need for advanced technology, such as AI and blockchains, to track and shut down stolen crude oil.
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Furthermore, Tuggar emphasized the importance of considering countries’ peculiarities while formulating universal laws and challenged the framing of some criteria for measuring corruption and money laundering. He advised developing nations to be concerned about the activities of cryptocurrency raiders, citing Nigeria’s experience with Binance.
In his remarks, President Bola Tinubu, who was represented at the event by Vice President Kashim Shettima, called on member states to intensify their fight against corruption, stressing that it was a significant obstacle to progress and prosperity in the region.
He emphasized the need for concerted actions, harmonized legal frameworks, and strengthened anti-corruption institutions to combat corruption effectively.
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