3 weeks ago
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•Promises renewed absorption connected tracing specified flows to plug fiscal leakages
•Upgrades Nigeria’s 2025 economical maturation forecast to 3.9%
•Cites stronger home fundamentals
•Calls for credible fiscal, monetary policies
•Downgrades planetary economical maturation forecast to 2.8%
By Emeka Anaeto, Business Editor, Babajide Komolafe, Economy Editor and Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief Reporting from Washington
The International Monetary Fund, IMF, has decried Illicit Financial Flows, IFFs retired of Nigeria, noting that it was contributing to the worsening gross occupation of the country.
The Managing Director of the planetary institution, Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, who stated this astatine the ongoing 2025 Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank successful Washington DC, promised renewed absorption connected tracing specified flows to plug fiscal leakages.
She said: “We judge that for countries similar Nigeria, the IMF’s renewed absorption connected tracing Illicit Financial Flows could supply a blueprint for plugging the fiscal leakages that person agelong undermined gross procreation and sustainable growth”.
Georgieva warned of the increasing menace of illicit fiscal flows, IFFs, improvement which, she said, had go a large origin undermining the economical and fiscal stableness of nations crossed the globe.
According to her, illicit fiscal flows which see stolen nationalist funds, proceeds from transgression activities, and untraceable integer transactions, proceed to erode governance systems, drain nationalist resources, and cripple developmental efforts, particularly successful processing economies.
In a caller argumentation briefing, IMF officials had noted that IFFs present travel successful “multiple dimensions.” These scope from outright embezzlement of taxpayers’ wealth to backstage funds channeled into amerciable ventures that endanger nationalist welfare.
The integer economy, they added, had further analyzable the situation with cryptocurrencies, specified arsenic Bitcoin, providing an avenue for anonymous fiscal transactions.
The IMF brag said:”You whitethorn person money, conscionable plainly stolen wealth that belongs to the taxpayers. You whitethorn person backstage wealth directed for transgression activities undermining the payment of citizens.
“Now with integer money, transgression activities tin beryllium funded without being traced. This is simply a superior problem, and we person to instrumentality it arsenic such.”
IMF’s strategy to combat soiled money
In response, the IMF disclosed that it had strengthened its Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism, AML/CFT, framework, pursuing a broad reappraisal successful 2023.
She said: “Following the wealth has present go a compulsory portion of the IMF’s yearly Article IV consultations — the modular economical wellness cheque for subordinate countries.
‘’This ensures that the money routinely assesses each nation’s vulnerability to illicit flows and fiscal integrity risks.”
The MD added that the IMF was embedding lessons from past experiences into its fiscal assemblage valuation tools to amended hint illicit transactions and vulnerabilities.
In addition, she said for countries seeking IMF fiscal assistance, immoderate programme plan would present see circumstantial measures to code the occupation of illicit flows, peculiarly wherever specified challenges are deemed systemic.
Ms. Georgieva besides said the Fund was supporting subordinate countries done method assistance and grooming to alteration section authorities detect, hint and respond efficaciously to suspicious fiscal activities.
“We request to bid state authorities truthful they tin hint illicit fiscal flows, beryllium much alert, and enactment quickly. Digital tools assistance successful tracking money, but they besides make caller avenues for evading oversight,’’ she added.
Governance and the mode forward
The MD emphasised that curbing illicit fiscal flows goes beyond fiscal systems to the precise halfway of governance and organization integrity.
She said done its Governance Diagnostics initiative, the Fund was helping countries place structural weaknesses that allowed corruption and fiscal crimes to thrive.
“The governance diagnostic is not an audit, it is astir identifying vulnerabilities successful the organization setup, the...
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