The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; has threatened African countries’
internally generated revenues (IGR) to fund essential services in
education, health and infrastructure sectors of economy.
According to 2019 Human Development Report, Africa will not meet
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of UN target to eliminate poverty
by 2030.
The report added: “The pandemic has exposed the urgency for African
countries to harness and optimize IGR from their natural resources.
“If managed well, natural resources wealth could be a major driver of
growth and socioeconomic transformation to counter COVID-19
consequences.”
Executive Director of Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), Alvin
Mosioma; raised the alarm in a statement Sunday in Maiduguri, the
Borno state capital.
He said the slow progress derives from resource leakages and
increasing poverty rates fueled by ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.
“About 64.3% of sub-Saharan Africa; is still living in
multidimensional poverty,” he lamented, noting that; while other
regions of the world; are experiencing rapid poverty reduction.
According to Human Development Report, “The decline is much slower for
sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, Libya, Niger, Mali,
Burkina Faso and Chad.
On dwindling IGRs, Mosioma said: “COVID-19 has overstretched the
resources needed to fund essential services like education and health
in Africa.
“The increased continental debt burden and limited inflows of aid and
foreign development investment, have put more pressures, more than
ever to raise revenue locally.”
He said Africa should be able to raise needed funds; if the duct
allowing capital flight and illicit financial flows (IFFs) could be
closed.
He added that the lost funds mainly come from Africa’s extractive
sector, while Africa remains the poorest continent in the world.
Citing UNCTAD 2020 report on Economic Development in Africa, he said:
“The extractive sectors lose about $ 50 billion (N19 trillion)
annually,” thereby presenting the largest of IFF from Africa.
He continued. “Due to pressures on governments to mobilize financial
resources to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19, the extractive
sector presents strategic potential to generate and raise the required
resources.”
He said there is need to reimagine public policy and deploy strategies
that address Africa’s vulnerabilities which were made more visible by
Covid-19.
He also noted that oil, gas and minerals are finite resources, warning
that; “The more they get extracted, they lost the opportunity to
develop based on them.”
Mosioma therefore, called on African governments to improve
transparency and accountability of multinational corporations and end
secretive jurisdiction and tax havens.
According to him, transparency and accountability will promote
exchange of information, and citizen participation in the extractive
revenue management.
