The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), a non-governmental organization, has held a two-day capacity building workshop for journalists in the Upper East Region on combating Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in Ghana.
Programme Officer at MFWA, William Nlanjerbor Jalulah, who explained the rationale behind the training, revealed that a report by the United Nations showed over $5 billion is lost annually in Africa due to IFFs.
According to him, it is important to build the capacity of journalists on IFFs to enable them to investigate and report such matters, helping the public understand how they affect the nation’s development.
He said, “The essence of the program is to build the capacity of journalists across the country. It has become important to do this because of the global impacts of IFFs across all sectors. As part of Agenda 2030 by the United Nations, all member states are supposed to ensure that they curb IFFs. In 2015, the African Union hosted a panel discussion chaired by Mr. Mbeki on IFFs. A report from that panel revealed that over $5 billion is lost annually in Africa through IFFs. It became evident that all African countries had to address this issue. As an organization that works closely with the media and focuses on building its capacity, we felt it was important to equip journalists to report on these issues. The goal of this workshop, which concluded today, was to build journalists’ skills in the area of IFFs so they can create awareness, educate the public, and investigate IFF-related issues when necessary.”
Mr. Jalulah indicated that the United Nations’ report highlighted the prevalence of IFFs in the private sector.
“In the report I cited, much emphasis is placed on the private sector, where many IFFs are detected. Therefore, if journalists have their capacity built in this area, they can identify prompts or leads that indicate the presence of IFF activities. This will enable them to dig deeper and uncover these issues.”
Mr. Jalulah outlined the Foundation’s future plans to contribute to combating IFFs effectively.
“We will be doing this across the country. Next year, we plan to cover all regions, starting with Ashanti. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to increase awareness. Currently, there is limited awareness, with some people hearing about IFFs for the first time. When people do not understand what is happening, they tend to accept it as normal. For example, when someone is transporting money in trucks, many think nothing of it, assuming the person simply has a lot of money. There is often no curiosity about where the money comes from or why it is not being deposited in a bank account. The reason for this is that when money is deposited into an account above a certain threshold, questions are raised. As a result, some people choose to keep cash or engage in other methods to move their money. Some use it to acquire property, making it difficult for the system to track such activities.”
Source:A1Radioonline.com | 101.1 MHz | Samuel Adagom| Bolgatanga
