Ibrahim
Magu, Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has decried
and described as endemic the rate of corruption, tax evasion, money laundering
and illicit financial flows within the African sub-region.
He
expressed this concern on Wednesday, April 26, 2017 while making a remark at
the opening ceremony of a three-day international
tax conference and capacity building workshop on the use of beneficial
ownership information and recovery of assets in Africa holding at the Congress
Hall, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
The conference with the topic, “Nigeria leads the fight against money
laundering, bribery, corruption and tax evasion” was jointly organized by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, and the Federal Inland Revenue
Service, FIRS, in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) and the World Bank Group (WG).
It is a multi-stakeholders initiative
on Tax and Good Governance designed to provide a platform for exchange of views
regarding the importance of beneficial ownership information in detecting,
tracking and preventing money laundering, tax evasion, corruption and other types
of illicit financial flows. It also examines processes and procedures for the
recovery of assets, its role in curbing illicit financial flows and how
existing practices can be made more effective and efficient.
The
EFCC boss described the conference as ‘timely and key’ as it supports the
efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to recover assets.
According
to him, “the government of Nigeria is taking the bull by the horn by initiating
policies, that have enhanced the fight against corruption in Nigeria and tremendous efforts are being made to
enhance international cooperation to recover our stolen assets”.
He
urged all stakeholders to key into the change agenda of the present government
with the mantra “kill corruption before
corruption kills us”.
Earlier, the Minister of Finance, Kemi
Adeosun, who was represented by Director, Technical Services,
Larai Shuaibu, expressed
concern over the alarming rate of corruption in Africa adding that, an
estimated $50billion is being loss every year through illicit financial flows.
She urged participants to continue to work
in line with the initiative in order to root out every form of corruption in
the economic and financial sector.
Also speaking, Tunde Fowler, Executive
Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, said the potential of Africa in
terms of revenue generation in comparison to the US tax rates were much lower.
He added that, “the only way to get
Africa out of the present economic situation is to review the conditions and
follow strict compliance”.
In his brief
remark, Jeffrey Owens, Project Co-Director, Tax and Good Governance Project,
urged the participants to discuss freely on the burning topics noting that about
110 people from various agencies in 20 countries are participating in the
conference and capacity building workshop.
He hoped that the road map would
open another chapter in strengthening the existing relationship between the
various agencies.
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