Anti-graft tsars urged to fight Africa’s ‘tsunami’

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron was quoted in 2016 as describing Nigeria as ‘fantastically corrupt’. This despite that fact that the UK ranks among the top destinations for stolen assets from African countries. A report on the News24 site notes that Nigeria and ex-British colonies in Africa are now working together to repatriate billions of dollars in offshore accounts from London and beyond. At a regional conference held over the past few days in Abuja, the heads of anti-corruption agencies from around Africa met to discuss strategies to overcome bottlenecks in the recovery of stolen assets. ‘Concerned about the heavy losses that Africa suffers as a result of illegal transfers of proceeds of corruption and crime out of Africa,’ the anti-corruption representatives on Friday vowed to strengthen cooperation and partnership in the tracing, recovery and return of assets. They further pledged to encourage African countries to commit to greater corporate transparency and called for investment in anti-corruption agencies to ‘trace, recover and return assets. Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said Africa is losing tens of billions of dollars annually to corruption, urging the anti-graft tsars to lead the ‘fight against this tsunami’.