In the presence of Minafou Fanta Coulibaly-Koné, Chief of Staff, representing the Minister of Economy and Finance of Côte d'Ivoire, began the work of the 9th annual general meeting of the Inter-Agency Asset Recovery Network for West Africa (Arinwa).

Under the theme “establishment and operationalization of an asset recovery body in Arinwa member states”, these meetings will allow the Network to take stock of its activities over the past year and set the outlook for 2023. Indeed, the countries of the West African zone are facing a set of challenges and vulnerabilities that their situation and current geopolitical and economic dynamics impose on them.

For this reason, Minafou Fanta stressed that it is about security and the fight against crime, in its multiple manifestations. She added that 50 billion US dollars (more than 3,103 billion CFA francs) represent a trifling sum that is beyond the reach of the economic authorities and regulators in the West African subregion alone.

According to him, the Arinwa member states are facing an increasingly complex organized and transnational crime that requires everyone to have organizational capacity “and high efficiency to provide an adequate response”.