Although Africa’s rich landscape, blessed with minerals and crude oil, holds immense potential for transforming the continent’s economic fortunes, it has become a hub of major illicit financial flows, jeopardizing its impact.
This is the concern of the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, when she spoke at the launch of the maiden edition of the Africa Extractives Media Fellowship in Accra.
Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, in his address, bemoaned that beneath the continent’s vast lands lie minerals, oil, and gas worth trillions, yet every year, over $40 billion quietly slips away through illicit financial flows.
The opportunity costs for these illicit financial flows, she says, are the schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and jobs missed out.
Deputy Chief of Staff maintained that the continent’s extractive sector also stands at the centre of environmental degradation, revenue loss, and conflict, which are undermining the expected benefits of these resource endowments.
The numbers, she says, are staggering. The extractive sector accounts for nearly 70% of Africa’s export earnings and roughly 30% of the continent’s GDP between 2000 and 2010, according to the African Development Bank.
In Ghana alone, the sector contributed 11.3% of GDP and 15% of government revenue in 2020, while the Democratic Republic of Congo derived 98% of exports and 46% of government revenue in 2021 from minerals. Similar patterns exist in Nigeria, Angola, and South Africa.
Yet, despite this abundance, the continent’s citizens often ask the same question: what do we have to show for it? Across Africa, the communities living closest to mines and oilfields remain among the poorest. Roads are broken, schools are under-resourced, and youth unemployment is stubbornly high.
The Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the continent loses more than $40 billion annually through secretive tax evasion, transfer pricing, and underreporting in the extractive sector.
“The same sector is estimated to lose over $40 billion every year to illicit financial flows, according to the Economic Commission for Africa. This is a leakage that directly undermines public investment in education, in health, in climate adaptation, and youth employment,” she recounted.
She added that, “the extractive sector accounts for an estimated 70% of Africa’s export earnings. What have we got to show for that?”
Nana Oye Bampoe added that the worrying situation underscores why responsible, fact-driven journalism is becoming central to Africa’s natural resource governance story.
She admitted that across the continent, citizens are demanding transparency and accountability in the management of Africa’s natural resources, hence endorsing the Africa Extractives Media Fellowship.
‘These realities have strengthened the case for vigilant, well-equipped journalism and for stronger institutional reforms across Africa and speak directly to the relevance of the fellowship we are launching this evening,” she remarked.
The new fellowship aims to empower journalists to uncover the truth behind the numbers by tracking where the money goes, who benefits, and who bears the cost.
For her, managing Ghana and Africa’s mineral wealth responsibly is not just an economic issue; it’s a question of justice, survival, and the future of the next generation.
