Africa is defiantly the new Canaan of the world with a large quantity of wealth in terms of natural resources, much of it undiscovered, barely harnessed, mismanaged by the continent's corrupt leadership and exploited by more dynamic groups, journalist Ken Kigunda writes for Safari Africa Radio.
By Ken Kigunda, Safari Afrika Radio
Despite this abundance of natural resources which includes oil, diamonds, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum, but also woods and tropical fruits, the continent has the world’s largest poverty levels largely caused by reap off by the multinational companies from the west. This miserable state of African nations with large quantities of rare raw materials can largely be attributed to some of the western nations that have been blamed of facilitating harmful tax practices such as capital flight and tax evasion through financial secrecy and tax heavens found in these countries.
According to Lee A. Sheppard A lawyer and also a tax expert, multinational companies operating in Africa have been able to craft treaties that protect their vested interest that see large illicit financial flows from developing countries to the west. Speaking during the Publish What You Pay Norway (PWYP-Norway) conference dubbed Financial Secrecy, Society and Vested Interest, Allison warned developing countries with natural resource not to enter into contracts designed by multinational companies’ lawyers. "Read the whole story here"