The headquarters of the pan-African bloc, African Union, in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)
ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- African countries could be losing 100 billion U.S. dollars annually through corruption, a senior African expert said on Saturday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 30th AU Summit in Ethiopia, Emmanuel Nnadozie, executive secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the AU's specialized agency for capacity development, said the amount of money Africa is losing through corruption might have been seriously underestimated.
Currently, ACBF studies show Africa loses at least 50 billion dollars in corrupt practices annually, but Nnadozie noted that much of the proceeds of corruption in Africa are stored in non-African jurisdictions, leading to the underestimation.
"Corruption is a global issue, it's not an African issue, everywhere you go there are corruption problems, so Africa's corruption problems need global solutions," said Nnadozie.
"The challenge many African countries face is they do not have the capacity to deal with corruption challenges, as they often face multinational firms who have far more capacity to evade taxes or engage in other corrupt practices," he said.
The 30th AU summit, themed "Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa's Transformation," kicked off on Jan. 22 and will end on Monday.