The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has initiated a process to measure how much the country lost through Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in the export and import trade sector over the last 21 years (2000 -2021).

IFFs involve illegal movements of money or capital from one country to another that are illegally earned, transferred, and/or utilised to, among other things, evade tax.

With support from the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the exercise would estimate the losses and the loopholes to enable the country to take specific action to block them.

The assessment is being done in accordance with guidelines developed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

As part of the process, a five-day workshop was yesterday opened in Accra and online to engage stakeholders on the exercise whose report is expected to be released by the end of June, this year. 

A report of the high-level panel on IFFs estimated Africa’s loss in IFFs at more than $1 trillion over the last 50 years, a sum nearly equivalent to all the official development assistance the continent received during the same period. 

UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report 2020 also notes that Africa could gain $89 billion annually by curbing IFFs while the continent’s resource-rich countries are particularly more prone to IFFs.

Currently, there is no specific data on how much Ghana losses through IFFs.

Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the workshop, the Deputy Government Statistician, Dr FaustinaAinguah, said the first draft of the report would be released by the end of first half of the year.

 She said assessment would boost the government’s Ghana Beyond Aid agenda by helping the country block activities that drain the country’s resources given that various reports had established that IFF hinder the capacity of developing countries to address their developmental needs.

Dr Ainguahsaid the workshop would involve presentations, discussion and the adoption of best practices and procedures geared towards generating the estimates.

She affirmed the service’s commitment to the exercise, promising to disseminate a comprehensive report which would help guide national development.

The Technical Adviser to the GRA Commissioner-General, Dominic Naab, cited cost padding  and misinterpretation of Ghana’s laws by multinationals as some of the conduits for IFFs.

In the petroleum and mining sectors, he said, the multinationals increase their cost of operation, limiting the profit from which the country would get its share.

He said efforts done had not yielded the desired results and that “The country needs to work on capacity to be able to nip in the bud some of these practices. We need to review our laws on taxation to strengthen them and clear the grey areas.”

A representative of UNCTAD/UNECA, Allan Mukungu, said the exercise was being carried out in various countries in Africa as part of efforts to help nations raise additional revenue and expressed the hope that the results would guide policy decisions because the IFFs losses were real.