Africa Pilots Anti-Illicit Financial Flows Project

Africa has been selected to pilot a United Nations-funded project to reduce illicit financial flows (IFFs). The pilot by the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) support the project, which is aimed at helping the region achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the next decade, writes Anthony Kitimo for The East African. UNCTAD and UNODC said the framework was arrived at through collaborations with international organisations and national tax, customs and statistics experts. Every year, organised crime, trade in illegal goods, and illegal or illicit tax and commercial practices generate billions of dollars in illicit flows. This includes proceeds of crime that are channelled abroad, often to safe havens. These funds may also be laundered and reinvested in legal markets, or they may originate in the legal economy and be illicitly transferred abroad.