Corruption, smuggling, tax evasion, under-invoicing: the amount of losses is equivalent to the sum of official development assistance and foreign direct investment, according to new UN calculations.

The haemorrhage of illicit capital from Africa is undermining the ability of many governments to provide basic services to their people.

This loss would be at least 76 billion euros (88.6 billion dollars) per year according to the last evaluation retained in the 2020 report on the economic development of Africa, published Monday, September 28 by the United Nations Conference. on development (Unctad).

A sum that is close to the annual total of official development assistance and foreign direct investment received by the continent between 2013 and 2015.

"These flows, which deprive public treasuries of the resources needed to finance development, are considerable and are constantly growing", deplore the authors of the report, specifying that they also represent half of the 200 billion dollars per year deemed necessary. for Africa to be on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

The previous estimate, published in 2015 by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, put forward the figure of 50 billion dollars on average per year over the period 2000-2008.