Audio: Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent
March 19th, 2012
Task Force Economist Advisory Board member Dr. Léonce Ndikumana launched his book, Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent, today at the Brookings Institute. The presentation included Task Force Raymond Baker as a panelist. Overall, it was a detailed and nuanced discussion in front of a large, influential crowd at Brookings. Audio below:
Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent
New research indicates that trends in the misappropriation of foreign loans to African countries are even greater than previously projected. In fact, it is estimated that more than half of the money borrowed by African governments in recent decades was misdirected the same year, transferred in many cases to private accounts in offshore tax secrecy jurisdictions. In Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent(Zed Books, 2011), Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce reveal these intimate links between foreign loans and capital flight, exploring the human cost of fund transfers as well as mechanisms to promote more responsible international financial systems.