Africa loses 70 million annually due to repatriation — Finance Minister

Africa loses an estimated $50 to $70 million yearly because most monies generated in the countries are repatriated, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has stated.

He attributed the situation to the huge informal nature of markets on the continent and charged, “We should work at ensuring that monies stay in the continent.”

The minister was speaking at the inauguration of a regional office complex for the West and Central Africa Region of the African Capacity-Building Foundation (ACBF) in Accra last Wednesday.

The complex is to serve as a business continuity office for the foundation. It was funded by the government of Ghana as its support to the foundation.

Capacity-building hub

Mr Ofori-Atta was hopeful that the complex would serve as a hub where issues on capacity building, youth unemployment, migration and the concept of the future of work on the continent would be discussed and resolved for the good of individual countries and the continent as a whole.

The minister, who is also the chair of the Board of Governors of the ACBF, said Ghana had over the years benefitted from the foundation’s capacity-building programmes, explaining that over 900 Ghanaians had benefitted from such programmes, some of whom were serving in various capacities in government and in the private sector.

He mentioned other beneficiaries of the ACBF’s capacity-building programmes as the Centre for Policy Analysis (CPA), the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), GIMPA Masters’ programme in Governance and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana.

According to Mr Ofori-Atta, Ghana had redeemed a $2,000,000 pledge it made to the foundation under its five-year strategic vision (2017-2021).

He said with the office complex in Ghana, the country stood to benefit more from the foundation’s activities.

Mr Ofori-Atta was unanimously elected as board chair by his peers at the 27th Annual Meeting of the ACBF Board of Governors, hosted by the Government of Cameroun in Yaoundé in July 2018.

Ghana’s commitment

The Executive Secretary of the ACBF, Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie, acknowledged Ghana for always demonstrating a strong political will towards capacity development in Africa and said the country offered  all facilities in terms of access to other countries covered by the regional office, as well as connectivity and security.

He noted that the country also offered great opportunities in the area of partnerships with other African countries and institutions, as well as the international development community.

“It is also my hope that we can make this regional office a major location from which the foundation builds new partnerships and strengthens resource mobilisation for the financing of capacity development in Africa,” Prof. Nnadozie added.