The Director for Research and Advocacy at the Media Foundation of West Africa (MFWA), Dr Kojo Impraim, has urged the government to enact a law to combat Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) which is hindering the development of the nation.

Illicit Financial Flows are a form of illegal capital flight that occurs when money is illegally earned, transferred from one country to another, or spent in an illegal way.

According to Dr. Impraim, IFFs are denying the country of revenues needed for growth, progress, positive change and in the long run economic recovery. IFF strip countries of important resources. They stem from corruption, crime, terrorism and tax evasion, he said.

Dr Impraim speaking in an interview after a two-day educative workshop on Illicit Financial Flows for journalists in Accra, disclosed that, the Global Financial Integrity Report (FIR) estimated that Ghana in 2015 lost about $3 billion through IFFs.

“And today that is the same money we are seeking from the International Monetary Fund as a bailout to revive the economy. This tells us the country is losing so much through Illicit Financial Flows.”
Dr Kojo Impraim

The program organized by MFWA under the auspices of OXFAM, was to build the capacity of the media on the issue to enable them report accurately and expose the canker.

Participants from the media firms were taken through legal, regulatory framework and policy responses to reducing Illicit Financial Flows in Ghana and the challenges militating against curbing it at both international and local levels.

Dr Impraim said even though there were lots of laws, such as the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Acts, legal frameworks and institutions to fight the menace of IFF, there was no specific law to deal with IFFs.

The Director for Research and Advocacy intimated that IFFs are a security threat to the country.

“There is a legal gap in Ghana’s efforts to combat IFFs. IFFs closed the financing and development gap of the country and undermined the credibility of public institutions.”
Dr Kojo Impraim

IFF Causing Harm To Private Sector And The Nation At Large

According to Dr. Kojo Impraim, the menace of Illicit Financial Flows has also undermined private financial sector regimes. “IFFs are a complex business, the trend and nature of them require a lot more interrogation of data,” he said.

According to him, IFFs are dominant in the mining and real estate sectors through transfer pricing. The issue of illicit financial flow remains one of the biggest bane in the mining sector, owing to existing gaps in mining sector governance. Resource governance indices for the mining sector has historically underperformed.

Mr. Bernard Anaba, the Policy analyst at ISODEC in an interview also revealed that, IFFs are a serious problem in Africa and Ghana.

“Even though development partners, such as UNCTAD, were helping to fight the menace, Ghana must draw a comprehensive strategy to tackle the problem.”
Mr. Bernard Anaba

The policy analyst averred that due to the porous nature of the country’s borders, people could just bring in money and send it outside the country.

Government has therefore been urged to strengthen its data management systems by establishing clear with concrete and up-to-date policies, promote effective due diligence, centre a culture of integrity through training and incentives.

Not limited to that, government has been advised to strengthen its governance systems, come up with a “speak-up” culture, collaborate across industries and sectors and finally come out with strict policy and regulatory environmental laws to curb the issue of Illicit Financial Flows.