The pan-African body, Trust Africa, will host the 8th Pan African Conference on Illicit Financial Flows and Taxation from 9-13 November, organisers said in Dakar, Senegal, on Friday.
The conference, which will take the form of country events, virtual forums at both regional and continental levels, will be on the theme: “The Africa We Want Post COVID-19: Optimising Domestic Resource Mobilization from the Extractive Sector for Africa’s Transformation.”
Due to the COVID-19 global health pandemic, this year’s edition of PAC will be a combination of in-country physical events (where possible) as well as virtual breakaway and plenary sessions.
According to Trust Africa’s Information and Advocacy Officer, Abda Wone, the COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted the critical need for African countries to maximise domestic resource mobilization as a source of development finance.
“Most African countries have been exposed as awfully falling short on investment in public health, sanitary infrastructure as well as disaster management and social support systems,” Trust Africa emphasised in a statement.
“The global nature of the pandemic means that overseas development assistance has dwindled as traditional donors are reprioritising resources to meet their own pressing domestic needs.”
Meanwhile, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on African economies with estimates from United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) indicating that full lockdown across Africa would cost the continent around $65.7 billion per month, equivalent to 2.5 per cent of its annual GDP.
Furthermore, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its June 2020 update, projected a contraction of the world’s economy by 4.9 per cent and of 3.2 per cent for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020.
It was also disclosed that in the mining sector, the impact has been varied across Africa. For instance, in South Africa and Zimbabwe, platinum miners recorded bumper revenues against the backdrop of favourable market prices for palladium, rhodium, nickel and gold.
However, in the same vein, some resource dependent countries have seen a massive drop in revenues due to reduced demand and falling prices of commodities on the global market.
For instance, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), some processing houses in mining sites reported production losses of 75%.
“The sudden downturn in commodity prices experienced by several African countries under COVID-19 is yet another reminder and call to action for African countries to attend to governance deficiencies and plug leakages in the natural resources sector,” Trust Africa stated.
PANA
