Book Launch: On the Trail of Capital Flight from Africa: The Takers and the Enablers

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Capital flight from Africa since 1970 amounts to $2 trillion. These outflows exceed annual inflows of development assistance and foreign direct investment received by African countries. Including interest income that would have been earned on these outflows, cumulative private wealth held offshore stood at $2.4 trillion by 2018. This represents more than three times the stock of debt owed by the continent in that year, ironically making Africa a ‘net creditor’ to the rest of the world.

A new book edited by PERI economists Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce looks at the complex issues around capital flight from Africa. On the Trail of Capital Flight from Africa: The Takers and the Enablers investigates the dynamics of capital flight from Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, and South Africa, countries that have witnessed large-scale illicit financial outflows in recent decades.

The evidence reveals a complex network of actors and enablers involved in orchestrating and facilitating capital flight and the accumulation of private wealth in offshore secrecy jurisdictions. The book highlights that capital flight is a global phenomenon, and that measures to curtail it are a shared responsibility for Africa and the global community. Addressing the problem of capital flight and related issues such as trade mis-invoicing, money laundering, tax evasion, and theft of public assets by political and economic elites will require national and global efforts with a high level of coordination.