The chairman, board of Institute of Directors Centre for Corporate Governance (IoDCCG), Mr. Shuaib Idris, has tasked all stakeholders to team up and tackle the menace of illicit financial flow considering the tremendous harm it has done to the Nigerian economy through endemic corruption occasioned by money laundering and terrorism financing.
Idris stated this in his welcome address at a stakeholders’ roundtable on ‘A public/private sector dialogue on strengthening anti-money laundering/countering terrorist financing (AML/CFT) and curbing illicit financial flows in Nigeria and West Africa,’ held in Lagos recently.
The programme was put together by the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), USA and IoDCCG
He said tackling illicit financial flows is a matter of survival for Africa’s development stressing that the continent had lost much in terms of gross domestic product.
“Africa not only loses about 5 per cent of continental GDP annually to illicit capital flights but the proliferation of illicit financial flows enables terrorist activity and insecurity from the Lake Chad region which includes Nigeria spanning the Sahel region.
“The losses to economic growth, trade opportunities, and social development are therefore unquantifiable. This constitutes a drain on Africa’s foreign exchange reserves, reduces efforts to enhance domestic resource mobilization, contracts investment inflows and contributes to low social development indicators including poverty and inequality,” he said.
Therefore, he said it “is a collective responsibility and a priority for the private sector, civil society and government to address systemic challenges and gaps undermining the efforts to curb illicit financial flow and money laundering/terrorism financing including lack of transparency, weak accountability mechanisms, under capacity, resource mismatch, and others that can be identified through dialogue and strategic engagements on this nature.”
Idris said he was impressed by the choice of panelists and moderators and “I have no doubt that at the end…resolutions that will touch on the major elements of discourse will be brought to the fore and the Centre will take it to the next level.”
He commended CIPE and the IoDCCG’s management for “championing events such as this which lends credence to the propagation of sound corporate governance principles and practices, been the core mandate of the centre.”
He announced that the Centre is committed to promoting and improving good corporate governance standards in Nigeria through advocacy, advisory services, research, and high-quality training for board members and executives in public and private sector organisations.
Besides, he said the centre was putting together series of activities in the coming months including the maiden edition of National Corporate Governance Summit, which hold July 26-27, 2022 in Lagos.
