Capital flight and illicit financial flows (IFFs), including those generated by terrorist organizations, which are part of the scourge of money laundering, pose a definite risk to African economies.

Tax evasion are all missed opportunities to generate revenue that African states so badly need to finance key sectors of the economy, fight against poverty and invest in social protection.

According to some estimates, IFFs from Africa amount to tens of billions of dollars a year.

Other studies point out that these losses represent approximately double the official development assistance (ODA) that Africa receives and, of course, these estimates are far from reality since precise data do not exist either for all transactions nor for all African countries.

The measures undertaken in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism aim to prevent the misuse of the financial system.

Their methods consist mainly of detecting and communicating suspicious financial flows, confiscating the proceeds and sanctioning the culprits.

International and regional cooperation has been developed for several years thanks to the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) and GIABA (Intergovernmental Action Task Force against Money Laundering in West Africa).

This body, which depends on ECOWAS, has been at the front for several years.

He is organizing an international conference on these themes this Wednesday in Dakar.

Money laundering and terrorist financing are transnational crimes with devastating consequences,” said Kimelabalou, the Director General of GIABA.