Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), says African governments must end corruption and illicit capital flows that cost the continent more than $580 billion annually if they are to deal with the continent’s $2 trillion debt pile.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, the AfDB president said while nations also need access to more concessional financing as well as debt restructuring where necessary, curbing outflows is crucial.
“It doesn’t matter how much water you pour into a bucket if the bucket is leaking,” he said.
“If you’re able to reduce the leakages to illicit capital, also corruption and all of these things, Africa will be able to keep a lot of these resources and meet the amount of infrastructure it needs.”
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In May, the AfDB estimated that Africa loses about $1.6 billion daily to what it termed “financial leakages”.
According to the lender, the figure includes the loss of $90 billion a year to illicit financial flows, with $275 billion “siphoned away” by multinational corporations shifting profits, and $148 billion going astray because of corruption.
On May 2, AfDB said it had approved a new five-year country strategy paper (2025-2030) for Nigeria, committing about $650 million annually to drive economic transformation, build resilience, and foster “broad-based” prosperity.
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On August 16, the lender announced a $40 million investment in blended capital for the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA) – Project Development Fund.
