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This had been announced in January 2018 by Moussa Faki Mahamat, president of the African Union Commission at the end of a session held in Addis Ababa. This well thought through decision followed a presentation by Vera Songwe, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). The figures are mindboggling. According to the report: “148 billion dollars are drained out of the continent by various forms of corruption, which represents about 25% of the average GDP of Africa”.
Photo by Sergey Pesterev on Unsplash
Roughly at the same time, the external debt of all African governments was estimated at 417 billion dollars, or less than 3 times the funds embezzled further to this corruption in just one year. Interestingly enough, the OECD 2018 report on Development Aid indicated that foreign aid to Africa had totaled just a little under 50 billion dollars.
The scandal unveiled this week about the 50 million dollars diverted by the own son of Congolese President Sassou Nguesso raises the question of whether the announcement following the African Union Commission gathering has been respected. Unfortunately, examples of that nature abound.
In any case, African leaders hold at least one key to the development of the continent.