Nigeria Content Online

Nigeria might have
lost 130 billion dollars from 2000-2008 to illicit financial flows, a
new report issued by US-based group, Global Financial Integrity (GFI),
said. The report entitled “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing
Countries: 2000-2009,” said Nigeria has the 10th highest measured
illicit outflows in the developing world, an average of 15 billion
dollars per year.

The GFI report
ranks countries according to magnitude of illicit outflows and
according to the report China is ranked the highest country of measured
illicit outflows in the developing world with 2.18 trillion dollars,
followed by Russia, 427 billion dollars and Mexico, 416 billon dollars.

It also shows the
annual outflows for each country and breaks outflows down into two
categories of drivers: trade mispricing and “other,” which includes
“kickbacks, bribes, embezzlement, and other forms of official
corruption.” Others in the top 10 are Saudi Arabia, 302 billion
dollars, Malaysia, 291 billion dollars; United Arab Emirates, 276
billion dollars; Kuwait, 242 billion dollars; Venezuela, 157 billion
dollars; and Qatar, 138 billion.

Primary findings
from the report said illicit outflows increased from $1.06 trillion in
2006 to approximately $1.26 trillion in 2008. It found that that
approximately $6.5 trillion was removed from the developing world from
2000 through 2008. According to the report, average annual illicit
outflows from developing countries averaged 725 billion dollars to 810
billion dollars per year, over the 2000-2008 period measured.

“Illicit flows
increased in current dollar terms by 18.0 percent per annum from 369.3
billion dollars at the start of the decade to 1.26 trillion dollars in
2008.

“When adjusted for inflation, the real growth of such outflows was 12.7 percent,” it said.

The report put real
growth of illicit flows over nine years in the African region at 21.9
per cent, compared with 24.3 per cent in the Middle East and North
Africa, 23.1 per cent in developing Europe, Asia 7.85, and Western
Hemisphere 5.18 per cent.

The report’s
author, Dev Kar, a former International Monetary Fund economist, said
bribery, theft, kickbacks, and tax evasion were the greatest conduit
for the illicit financial flows.

He said oil-exporting countries were becoming more important sources of illicit capital.

GFI director
Raymond Baker said every year developing countries were losing 10 times
the amount of Official Development Assistance (ODA) remitted for
poverty alleviation and economic development,” “This report measures
the quantity and pattern of these harmful outflows and provides stark
proof of the impact of these illicit financial practices,” Baker said.

GFI said the authors of the report used a World Bank model to calculate developing countries’ missing billions.