{"id":75658,"date":"2025-09-25T05:51:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T05:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=75658"},"modified":"2025-09-25T05:51:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T05:51:30","slug":"african-lawmakers-meet-in-abuja-raise-alarm-over-587bn-fiscal-leakages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/09\/25\/african-lawmakers-meet-in-abuja-raise-alarm-over-587bn-fiscal-leakages\/","title":{"rendered":"African Lawmakers Meet in Abuja, Raise Alarm Over $587bn Fiscal Leakages"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Omoniyi David<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lawmakers from 16 African countries met in Abuja last week for the 8th Conference of the African Network of Parliamentary Budget Offices (AN-PBO), warning that fiscal leakages drain the continent of an estimated $587 billion annually.<\/p>\n

The conference, hosted at the Abuja Continental Hotel, underscored Nigeria\u2019s vulnerability as Africa\u2019s largest economy, where corruption and illicit financial flows continue to undermine development.<\/p>\n

In his keynote address, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, decried the scale of losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, billions that should be building hospitals in Nairobi, equipping schools in Accra, or paving roads in Lagos vanish into illicit flows and profit shifting. Corruption alone drains Africa of $148 billion annually. This is unsustainable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Abbas revealed that Nigeria\u2019s procurement fraud costs about $18 billion yearly, equivalent to 3.8 percent of GDP – money that could finance critical infrastructure. He described the losses as a harsh reminder of how much disappears before budgets are implemented.<\/p>\n

Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, called the summit \u201ca springboard for innovation and a moment to reimagine fiscal governance across the continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nigerian context added urgency to the discussions. The country loses an estimated $582 billion to corruption since independence, with PwC projecting that unchecked graft could erode up to 37 percent of GDP by 2030.<\/p>\n

In 2014 alone, every Nigerian effectively lost about $1,000 to corruption, a figure projected to double by 2030.<\/p>\n

Delegates noted that African countries with high illicit financial flows spend up to 25 percent less on health care and 58 percent less on education.<\/p>\n

Experts stressed that with Nigeria\u2019s $18 billion annual loss, the country could build between 1,800 and 3,600 fully equipped hospitals each year, rehabilitate schools, or finance major road projects.<\/p>\n

The consequences, they observed, are visible in underfunded hospitals, dilapidated schools, poor infrastructure, and worsening insecurity across the northeast, northwest, and Niger Delta.<\/p>\n

Participants debated reforms including establishing independent budget offices, improving fiscal data, and enforcing procurement transparency.<\/p>\n

Abbas assured that Nigeria\u2019s planned National Assembly Budget and Research Office would strengthen lawmakers\u2019 oversight and accountability.<\/p>\n

The conference closed with resolutions to improve fiscal discipline across Africa. But observers noted that Nigeria\u2019s ability to act on the recommendations and stem its $18 billion annual losses will determine whether the resolutions translate into real development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Omoniyi David Lawmakers from 16 African countries met in Abuja last week for the 8th Conference of the African Network of Parliamentary Budget Offices (AN-PBO), warning that fiscal leakages drain the continent of an estimated $587 billion annually. The conference, hosted at the Abuja Continental Hotel, underscored Nigeria\u2019s vulnerability as Africa\u2019s largest economy, where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":75659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,173,1756,172,249],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-75658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports","category-business","category-economy","category-news","category-world-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75660,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75658\/revisions\/75660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}