Unmasking governance and the roles of international players in corruption in Africa

Governance matters
The April 2016 revelations in the “Panama Papers” brought into renewed focus the efforts of many Africans over the past few years to draw the attention of world leaders and policymakers to the catastrophic effects of illicit financial outflows bleeding the continent. The Panama Papers confirm two major facts: first, the widespread use of offshore banking for the purposes of tax avoidance and other illegal activities; and second, the magnitude of these secret financial transactions. What is shocking to many observers in Africa is the sheer scale of the money transfers: almost 215,000 offshore shell companies, more than 14,000 clients, more than 11 million documents with billions of dollars hidden behind them.