An expert on Nigeria
"Mathew" has said that the U.S. and the United Kingdom are the biggest recipients of
funds looted from Nigeria - He said
the current banking, property and corporate
laws in the U.S and U.K were designed to facilitate illicit financial flows
from Nigeria - Page said an estimated 57 billion pounds was laundered within
and through the UK in 2013 alone Mathew Page, former United States intelligence
community’s top expert on Nigeria has said that the U.S. and the United Kingdom
are the biggest recipients of funds looted from Nigeria. Page, a senior
policymaker at the White House, State Department, Defense Department for more
than a decade, stated this on Friday in Abuja at a roundtable organised by the
Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a civil society organisation. READ
ALSO: Six Fulani herdsmen allegedly killed in Plateau state His submissions
were contained in a paper titled, “From Maitama to Mayfair: How International
Financial and Property Markets Fuel Corruption in Nigeria’’.
The guest speaker noted that current
banking, property and corporate laws in the U.S. and U.K. did not only lack
adequate safeguards, but were designed to facilitate illicit financial flows
from Nigeria. “Nigeria’s kleptocrats deftly use both Nigerian banks and the
international financial system, especially anonymous shell corporations and
offshore tax havens, to launder stolen public funds and stash them overseas,
often in the form of high-end real estate in London, Dubai, New York, and
California. “Despite possessing robust discretionary powers, the US and UK
rarely deny visas to corrupt officials or report cases of suspected corruption
or unexplained wealth back to law enforcement agencies back home.
“The UK is one of a small number of
global financial centres that play a key role in processing substantial levels
of corrupt capital,’’ he said. Citing Transparency International, he said an
estimated 57 billion pounds was laundered within and through the UK in 2013
alone, representing 3.6 per cent of that year’s national real GDP. Page, a
non-resident fellow with the CDD, described the London property market as
highly vulnerable to corrupt wealth flowing into it. “If Nigerian kleptocrats
are unable to visit their properties and spend their illgotten gains in luxury
boutiques in London, Dubai, and New York, the incentives for off-shoring them,
would likely diminish.
“There is no doubt that the
readiness with which the UK, US, and other parts of the international financial
system absorb illicit financial outflows from Nigeria compounds the damage
corruption inflicts here. ‘’ He added that looted funds stashed overseas by
politically-exposed Nigerians do more damage than those hidden or spent
domestically. According to him, moneys laundered abroad“ put pressure on the
Naira, raise property prices in London and are much more difficult for anticorruption
agencies to locate and recover’’. Page noted that the role played by the
international financial and property markets in driving problem in Nigeria was
a key aspect of the equation that was lacking in the corruption.
To address the challenge, he made a
number of recommendations, including elimination of secrecy jurisdictions to
require beneficial ownership disclosure of companies and property. Page also
called for enhanced funding for relevant law enforcement agencies as well as
transition to financial independence for them The Director of CDD, Ms Idayat
Hassan, said the roundtable was one of several contributions by her
organisation to the anti-corruption war in the country. Hassan stated that the
forum would produce feasible recommendations on how to prevent off-shoring of
stolen wealth in Nigeria. Meanwhile, according to the federal government, part
of the stolen funds recovered from those that looted the economy will be used
to finance the 2017 budget. This was disclosed by the accountant general of the
federation, Alhaji Idris Ahmed, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at
the 22nd annual conference of the Association of National Accountants of
Nigeria (ANAN) in Abuja.
No comments:
Post a Comment