Financial Transparency Coalition

Every so often in campaigning, you experience a rare breakthrough moment where the project gathers steam and people start to listen in a way they haven’t before. We had one of those moments last summer. My colleagues and I had spent the last five years telling people that anonymous companies facilitate much of the corruption that we campaign to stop. Most people were sympathetic to our cause and surprised by what we told them, but in terms of real, hard change, it’s fair to say our calls fell largely on deaf ears. In 2013, things changed.

Every year, more capital is transferred out of Africa than into the continent. This is despite billions of dollars of foreign aid, natural resource exports, and foreign direct investment.

Earlier this month, Nigeria leapt past South Africa to emerge as Africa’s largest economy. The financial world has watched the shift intently, with a keen interest on the amount of money coming into Nigeria. But keeping an eye on the huge sums of money flowing out is just as important.

If you're anything like me, you may have spent an hour waiting in line at the U.S. post office yesterday. I realize I'm a blogger, and a graduate student, and in my twenties -- and all of these factors made me rather unlike the typical pen-and-paper-tax-filer -- but there's just something so satisfying about addressing an envelope (and sometimes a check) to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.