From Business Day

Most illicit outflow of capital from Africa is from corporates in extractive industries, said African Union Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Extractive industries are industries that require raw materials and relates to metal, minerals, and earth aggregates.

Speaking to captains of the industry on at the mining lekgotla in Midrand, Johannesburg, Dlamini-Zuma said a high level panel, led by former president Thabo Mbeki, to look at illicit trading in Africa had found that mining companies and others in extractive industries were the biggest culprits.

Conventional knowledge until the conclusion of that study had been that politicians were the worst offenders, but the study “showed something different”, said  Dlamini-Zuma.

The movement of such types of money is made with clear intention to make it disappear from any record in the country of origin, according to a report by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation.

Africa has been tipped as one of the world’s hot spots for foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth, but there are concerns that the continent’s development is being held back by a massive, illicit outflow of capital.

Written by Setumo Stone/Read more at Business Day