Browsing: corruption in Africa

• Six African nations ranked among the top 10 globally for money laundering and terrorism financing risk by the 2023 Basel AML Index.
• Another 11 African countries are grey-listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), including Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa.
• The overall economic ramifications of these crimes are staggering, from lost FDI to widespread inequality.

Money laundering, corruption, and terrorism financing are no longer hidden threats—they are destructive forces ravaging Africa’s economies.

With six African nations ranked among the top 10 globally for money laundering and terrorism financing risk by the 2023 Basel AML Index, the scope of the problem is frightening. Add to this the 11 African countries grey-listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), including Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, and the stakes become even more urgent. Mineral-rich South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo stick out like a sore thumb on this dirty list.…

• Africa posts sharp decline in support for democracy despite 66 Per cent of the continent preferring democracy over any other system.
• Opposition to military rule has also weakened by 11 points, notably in Mali and Burkina Faso.
• Satisfaction with democracy has notably decreased in prominent democracies like Botswana (-40 points), Mauritius (-40 points), and South Africa (-35 points).

Over the past decade, popular support for democracy has declined sharply in several African countries, and opposition to military rule has weakened a new survey by Afrobarometer has shown.

Afrobarometer’s inaugural flagship report  shows that satisfaction with the way democracy works has continued to decline despite that Africans remaining strongly committed to democracy, its norms, and institutions.

The survey covering the period between 2021 and 2023, covers 39 countries, providing data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life.

The findings, based on 53,444 face-to-face interviews, show that …

• Somalia, South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea have emerged as the most corrupt countries in Africa in the 2023 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International.
• Liberia (25) has declined 16 points in the CPI score since 2016 while Mali (28) has dropped seven points in the CPI ranking since 2015.
• In 2023, Gabon ranked (28) having lost a similar number of points like troubled Mali since 2016.

Somalia, South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea have emerged as the most corrupt countries in Africa in the 2023 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International (TI). Equatorial Guinea (17), South Sudan (13) and Somalia (11) scored the lowest with TI saying these economies showed “no sign of improvement.”

Liberia (25) has declined 16 points in the CPI score since 2016 while Mali (28) has dropped seven points in the CPI ranking since 2015. In 2023, Gabon ranked (28) having lost a similar number …

As previously noted by Afrobarometer, most citizens in at least 18 countries said things had worsened between 2019 and 2020.

Those sampled said their governments were doing too little to control corruption, with most saying they would risk retaliation should they get involved in reporting the vice. The report found that on average, across 18 countries, six in 10 Africans (59%) say that corruption increased in their country during the previous year, including 41% who say it increased.

Perceptions that corruption is getting worse are most widespread in Gabon (82%), Lesotho (79%), and Mali (74%), as well as in Namibia (74%) — even though survey fieldwork in Namibia was completed before the #Fishrot corruption scheme was exposed in November 2019.…