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The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has charged West African states to implement robust systems that will help cut the flow of financial resources to criminals who cause terrorism and political insurgence in the sub-region.

He noted that Africa was losing an average of $88 billion a year to illicit financial flows, with a chunk of it going into the financing of terrorism and insurgency.

He said the rising spate of coups d’etat, terrorist activities and other acts of instability in the region in recent times called for increased efforts to plug the loopholes and deny the perpetrators resources to help end the menace.

The Vice-President noted that members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) could achieve that by strengthening their collaboration in the fight against money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) in the region.

He gave the charge in a speech read on his behalf by the Senior Presidential Advisor, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, at the closing ceremony of the 24th Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) Technical/plenary meeting and the GIABA Ministerial Committee (GMC) meeting in Accra yesterday.

Recent coups

Dr Bawumia cited the recent military takeovers in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso and the failed attempt in Guinea Bissau, as well as an uptick in terrorist insurgence in the region, as wake-up calls to governments in the region to step up their fight against ML/TF.

“Our responsibility to stop the flow of illicit financing is an urgent one, which will cut down the outflow of funds to these groups and channel same into our development recovery to improve the quality of life of our people,” he said.