According to Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), corruption is a global problem, not just one that affects African countries.
Adesina made this observation in a recent interview with the UK Guardian. He said that while there is zero corruption in countries like Eritrea in East Africa, corruption is high in the financial and economic sectors in Europe.
To be more accountable in the use of public resources, he added, the African continent must continue to make progress in this area.
Adesina said; “The global financial crisis that brought the world down in 2008, was not in Africa. We have no Wall Street. That collapse came from greed, from corruption, from fraud.
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“You have people cooking the books that are in the financial industry in Europe, not in Africa. Corruption is not an African issue.
“The issue is, that is not to say that there’s none. What you have to do is to continue to improve transparency and accountability in the use of public resources.
“During my first visit to Eritrea, I was talking to UN Development Programme staff. You know what they told me? That, in Eritrea, corruption is zero per cent.
“Why do we not talk about that? That’s the kind of thing that we want to do. For us as a development bank, we take good governance very seriously.”
Adesina asserted that there is a need to direct a searchlight in that direction and that multinational corporations are supporting illicit capital flows in Africa. He added that the AfDB makes sure that when nations borrow money from them, they provide assistance to those nations so they can account for the resources.
He added that in order for Africa to advance along the value chain, it must give value to its natural resources, such as its oil and gas, minerals, metals, and food.