By Victor Essang
UYO
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, under the aegis Fair Finance Nigeria has identified high rate of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in Nigeria as main reason for poor infrastructure, underdevelopment and called for measures to curb the menace.
To curb IFFs, they recommended capacity building of the relevant stakeholders like financial institutions, security agencies and host community members.
They made case for effective legislation and strong political will to implement the laws and support institutions in fighting IFFs
According to them, “adequate information dissemination on illicit financial flows using mass media and other relevant communication channels”, will contribute to curbing IFFs.
This is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day- stakeholder consultative workshop with Host Community Development Trust, HCDTF, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, organised by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, and supported by Fair Finance International and Oxfam in Nigeria.
While noting that IFFs is most affected by the oil sector and the financial institutions, they stressed that it widens inequality gap thereby denying government the needed revenue to finance public budgets and deprive communities of critical social goods and services, such as health, education, public security, and agricultural inputs.
Government, they said can leverage modern technology, strengthen financial management systems, to curb IFFs.
In an interview with The Pioneer, the programme manager, Oxfam, Mr Henry Ushie said the essence of the workshop was to seek communities’ buy-in to the CSOs mandate on curbing IFFs in Nigeria.
Ushie expressed optimism that the outcome of the workshop will help solve IFFs.
Meanwhile, the Akwa Ibom government has promised to partner the CSOs in the fight to curb IFFs.
The Commissioner for finance, Dr Linus Nkanga made the promise when the the CSOs paid a courtesy visit on him in his office.
Nkan who was represented by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Mr Mark Esumoh confirmed that IFFs was a crucial issue that need to be urgently addressed.
He said the state will make more progress if they are able to curb financial flows through illegal channels.
The Commissioner said the state was blessed with a visionary governor whose blueprint works towards providing good governance to the people of the state.
He lauded the group for their concern towards fighting IFFs, saying when this is achieved, the result will be development of the society.
The CSOs also paid similar visit to the ministry of Environment and patroleum resources.
On the visit were, Ayo Omowu, Henry Ushie, Tijah Bolton, Enebi Okpaluwa, Kingsley Agu, and Ubong Ekpe among others.
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