The Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN) says the future of the anti-graft war lies less in arrests and more in training public officers to block illicit financial flows before they occur.
ACAN is the research and training arm of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)
The Provost of ACAN, Prof. Sheriff Ibrahim stated this on Wednesday while declaring open a three-day workshop on “Tackling Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) and Money Laundering” at the institute in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
Ibrahim said ACAN was created specifically to build a knowledge base that can produce sound, preventive anti-corruption policies.
He noted that enforcement alone had not stopped fraudulent practices from thriving across government.
“From the education sector, to our health institutions and transportation system… anecdotes of fraudulent transactions that are perpetrated with impunity abound,” he said.
According to him, the injury inflicted by corruption on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) can only be better imagined, which is why the academy is pushing training and re-training as the new frontline.
“Our philosophy is that corruption and related crimes can be controlled and managed through a system of training and re-training that will produce sound anti-corruption policies, operational efficiency and good management culture.”
He explained that the workshop was carefully designed with clear learning objectives to equip public servants with the tools to detect and prevent money laundering and illicit financial flows within their institutions.
The provost challenged participants to make the best use of the three-day engagement, stressing that the goal was to create an enabling environment where integrity and accountability become standard practice.
Ibrahim also highlighted the scale of the problem Nigeria and Africa face in battling the scourge of corruption.
He cited UNCTAD 2020 data showing that Africa loses about 88.6 billion dollars annually to illicit financial flows, or 3.7 per cent of the continent’s GDP.
He said the extractive sector, especially gold, oil and mining, remains the biggest pipeline, with trade misinvoicing and profit shifting by multinationals accounting for much of it.
The gold sector alone, he noted, accounts for 77 per cent of 40 billion dollars in under-invoicing.
For Nigeria, he said estimates for 2023 put the annual loss at about 18 billion dollars, representing 30 per cent of Africa’s total IFFs, which are estimated at 90 billion dollars yearly.
The provost further referenced a statement by former AfDB President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, who said Africa loses 1.6 billion dollars daily to “financial leakages”
This he said included 90 billion dollars a year to IFFs, 275 billion dollars to profit shifting, and 148 billion dollars to corruption.
Ibrahim said these figures showed why Nigeria could not afford to keep fighting corruption with enforcement alone.
“Thus, this ugly situation requires attention for Nigeria to flourish,” he said.
He reminded participants that one of ACAN’s core mandates is to provide training on good governance, accountability, transparency, integrity and ethics, while also building research that informs policy.
The provost also appreciated chief executives of MDAs who released their staff for the training, saying the academy did not take their commitment for granted.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
