As at 2009, over N74.4 trillion (US$400 billion) of Nigeria’s
wealth was stolen by high level Nigerian public officials, the co-Chairman,
Nigeria Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing National Risk Assessment
Secretariat, Sam Onyeka, has disclosed, according to The Nation.
Onyeka said until 1990, issues of money laundering were
associated principally with drug trafficking.
He said though efforts were ongoing to recover parts of the
stolen funds, much of the money, according to him, was stashed in different
bank accounts abroad.
He spoke during a briefing on his book titled: “Anti-Money
Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism in Nigeria,” organized on
Friday in Abuja.
The book would be launched on January 29 in Abuja and chaired
by the Director General, Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money
Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Dr. Abdullahi Shehu.
He stated in the book that, “In Nigeria, money laundering had
been associated principally with drug trafficking, but since the 1990s, it has
been fueled more by corruption. For instance, as at 2009, over US$400 billion
of Nigeria’s wealth has been stolen by high level Nigerian public officials.
“Although, efforts are on-going to recover at least some part
of the stolen funds, much of this is still stashed away in different foreign
bank accounts and other investments abroad.”
While he admitted that the
problem has huge implication on economies of developing countries, Onyeka added
that it often result to weak and inadequate banking supervision as well as
ineffective law enforcement.
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