Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank, says Africa loses about $148 billion annually due to corruption.
Adesina, who spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja, said corruption posed great challenge to development in Africa.
He, however, said corruption was not unique to Africa, but a global problem.
He said: “Africa loses about $148 billion a year because of corruption.
“Africa also loses $60 billion a year because of illegal capital flow.
“These are money that should be going into education, health, water and sanitation sectors.
“Wherever you have massive corruption, development takes a back seat and slow things down.
“Transparency is the key.
“Detecting corruption is important, but preventing corruption is also important.
“Therefore, it is in the interest of Africa to prevent corruption in order to boost economy and development across the continent.”
Speaking on Sustainable Fund for Africa, Adesina said it was an initiative of the United Nations, but hosted by AfDB.
He said it was an initiative that was used in the enhancement of renewable energy.
Adesina said Nigeria was benefiting from the initiative, adding that Nigeria can also access the fund for the renewable energy.
He said Nigeria has a huge energy challenge, adding that the bank would be working closely with the government to tackle the challenge.
Speaking on recent elections held in Africa, he said Africa has done well in terms of peace, stability and democratisation.
He said: “Without peace and stability, we cannot have development.
“So the bank will continue to work with the Africa Union to ensure that our countries have peaceful and creditable elections.
“Because creditable election also help investors to want to put their money into Africa.”
The president said the bank would roll out new programmes in 2016 called: “Transformative Partnership on Energy.”
Adesina said the programme would give Africa a clear idea of how the bank was going to light up and power Africa in 2016.
NAN.
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