Ghanaian journalists have been urged to lead advocacy and citizen mobilisation as part of efforts to fight against Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and increase investment to the country.
IFFs are illegal financial transfers or movements of money across borders that contravene national and international laws and these could include corruption, illegal mining, money laundering, tax invasion, trade mispricing, and conflict financing. These activities contribute to hampering economies' ability to mobilise the needed revenue for sustainable development, leading to continues borrowing and widening inequality among the poor and the beneficiaries of the illegal activities.
Dr Bishop Akologo, an Economist, said Ghana was losing billions of dollars to the IFFs annually, through corruption, bribery, poor contracting and investment, which posed significant challenges to the country's development and financial governance.
For instance, the Global Financial Integrity report indicated that in 2015 alone, Ghana lost over US$3 billion through illicit financial flows in trade and mis-invoicing out of a US$ 9 billion export and import with developed countries. "Illicit financial flows rob us of development.
