![](https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/nicshax-1-150x150.jpg)
Nick Shaxson ■ Review: new book on Capital Flight from Africa
![Capital flight Africa](https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/fly-images/2530/Capital-flight-Africa-1-1400x600-c.jpeg)
Over at Uncounted, Alex Cobham (our Research Director) has written a review of a new tome for tax justice bookshelves: Capital flight from Africa: Causes, effects and policy issues, Ibi Ajayi & Léonce Ndikumana (eds.), 2015, Oxford University Press.
His review begins:
“This new volume from the AERC (African Economic Research Consortium) is a very welcome milestone in scholarship on the complex and contested areas of capital flight and illicit financial flows (IFF). It is more than that however. It is a powerful book in terms of what it represents; what it contributes; and above all, of what it challenges. These are discussed in turn below, before consideration of a major policy opportunity that now beckons.”
We’d urge you to read the whole thing, but we’ll single out a couple of points:
Weeks’ sharp statement of findings arguably applies across the wider set of results too:
“the orthodox narrative that capital flight results from unsound macro policies [is reversed]. On the contrary, capital flight may force governments into policies that work against the majority of the population”
Which is a remarkably important finding. There’s much more in the review: from challenging traditional perceptions of corruption, to underlying the importance of tackling secrecy and fostering a compliance culture, and questions like this:
“In each of the following cases, for example, who is the corrupter and who the corrupted?
- An anonymous BVI company is awarded a cheap Zambian mining concession, then flips it to a UK-listed plc
- A Swiss bank holds a Nigerian resident’s overseas assets through a Jersey trust; nothing is reported to the Nigerian authorities
- A US-headquartered multinational shifts profit from Ghana to Luxembourg”
and observations like this:
“Although the ‘crazy ideas’ generated by civil society in the early 2000s now dominate the global policy agenda, there is a failure across the board – most obviously in terms of country-by-country reporting, and automatic exchange of tax information – to ensure that the benefits flow to developing countries as well as OECD members.”
And there is a summary of that “major policy opportunity that now beckons,” alongside a teaser for something potentially big that we’ll be publishing tomorrow.
But for now, we urge you strongly to read the review.
Related articles
![A large sculpture of face sits in the middle of a garden hedge maze - UNSPLASH A large sculpture of face sits in the middle of a garden hedge maze](https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/fly-images/18379/A-large-sculpture-of-face-sits-in-the-middle-of-a-garden-hedge-maze-UNSPLASH-380x210-c.jpg)
Another EU court case is weaponising human rights against transparency and tax justice
Submission to Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers on undue influence of economic actors on judicial systems
![OECD podium - U.S. Department of State from United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons OECD podium](https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/fly-images/16449/OECD-podium-U.S.-Department-of-State-from-United-States-Public-domain-via-Wikimedia-Commons-380x210-c.png)
Litany of failure: new briefing sets out OECD’s manifold shortcomings in international tax talks
![Outline of Africa (cover image from report) Outline of Africa filled with water, forests, money to represent Africa's climate finance](https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/fly-images/18104/Cover-image-for-blog3-1-380x210-c.png)
Financing Africa’s Climate Action
![ab062332-0d4e-45f5-ab59-ad1d7a074939](https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/fly-images/18119/ab062332-0d4e-45f5-ab59-ad1d7a074939-380x210-c.jpeg)
Tax injustices are eroding women’s rights in Brazil, and we need to talk about it
Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
20 May 2024
The fiscal social contract and the human rights economy
29 April 2024
![Ireland Tech Sector The tech sector in Dublin, Ireland](https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/fly-images/14059/ireland_dublin_tech_sector-scaled-380x210-c.jpg)
Ireland (again) in crosshairs of UN rights body
![podcasts-new-look](https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/fly-images/17696/podcasts-new-look-380x210-c.png)
New Tax Justice Network podcast website launched!
![The-Taxcast-cover-episode-1_resized](https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/fly-images/17690/The-Taxcast-cover-episode-1_resized-380x210-c.png)