![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Buhari-issues-order-to-security-chiefs.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHe spoke at a High-Level National Side-Event organised by the African Union Development Agency and New Partnership for Africa\u2019s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday in New York, on the margins of the 74th United Nations General Assembly.<\/p>\n
Quoting from the 2014 Global Financial Integrity Report, the Nigerian leader noted that such massive loss of assets, resulted in dearth of resources \u201cto fund public services or to alleviate poverty,\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n
According to him, \u201cThis is why, as Africans, we have no choice but to break the back of corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur government has made it a war we intend to win. We will give all it takes to ensure there is no hiding place for purveyors of corrupt practices who are truly enemies of the people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last five years, our government has made significant progress to curb corruption. We have recovered millions of dollars stolen from our country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still a lot of other funds that are stuck in foreign bank accounts due to international laws, different jurisdictions and justice systems that make it difficult for repatriation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Describing Illicit Financial Flows as \u201cillegal movement of funds from one country to another,\u201d President Buhari lamented that, \u201cThese flows deplete Africa\u2019s internally generated revenues, foreign exchange earnings, reduce tax revenues, drain natural resources, facilitate corruption and stunt private sector development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing tax avoidance as another form of illicit financial flow, he quoted the Tax Justice Network and the International Monetary Fund to have estimated over US$200 billion per year as \u201cbeing lost by developing countries when multinational enterprises do not pay taxes in the countries where they made the profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis amount is significantly higher than the annual development aid received by these countries which are estimated to be about US$143 billion,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Commending the organisers of the meeting designed to finding \u201cpragmatic ways to promote international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on asset recovery and return, as an arm of sustainable development policies in Africa,\u201d Buhari also lauded their \u201cshared commitment to root out corruption from our continent.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Nigerian President, \u201cI am motivated by the belief that, if we join hands, we can bequeath to our children an Africa that is not defined by corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emphasizing the imperative of international cooperation towards stemming the incidence of illegal financial flows, President Buhari said, \u201cAny lasting solution to the above challenges will require international cooperation and coordination,\u201d of African countries and their international counterparts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one reason why the Nigerian Government supports this initiative of AUDA\/NEPAD and remains committed until we ensure that there are no safe-havens for stolen assets from Africa,\u201d he declared.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that Nigeria lost an estimated US$157.5 billion to illicit financial flows between 2003 and 2012. He spoke at a High-Level National Side-Event organised by the African Union Development Agency and New Partnership for Africa\u2019s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday in New York, on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2658,41,566],"class_list":["post-155373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-a","tag-buhari","tag-corruption"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=155373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/153781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=155373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=155373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=155373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}