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Potential gains from capital flight repatriation for Sub-Saharan African countries

Author

Listed:
  • Fofack, Hippolyte
  • Ndikumana, Leonce
Abstract
Despite the recent increase in capital flows to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region remains largely marginalized in financial globalization and chronically dependent on official development aid. And with the potential decline in the level of official development assistance in a context of global financial crisis, the need to increase domestic resources mobilization as well as non-debt generating external resources is critical now more than ever before. However, the debate on resource mobilization has overlooked an important untapped source of funds consisting of the massive stocks of private wealth stashed in Western financial centers, a substantial part of which left the region in the form of capital flight. This paper argues that the repatriation of flight capital should take a more prominent place in this debate from a moral standpoint and for clear economic reasons. On the moral side, the argument is that a large proportion of the capital flight legitimately belongs to the Africans and therefore must be restituted to the legitimate claimants. The economic argument is that repatriation of flight capital will propel the sub-continent on a higher sustainable growth path while preserving its financial stability and without mortgaging the welfare of its future generations through external borrowing. The analysis in the paper demonstrates quantitatively that the gains from repatriation are large and dominate the expected benefits from other sources such as debt relief. It is estimated that if only a quarter of the stock of capital flight was repatriated to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region would go from trailing to leading other developing regions in terms of domestic investment, thus initiating a ‘big-push’-led sustainable long-term economic growth. The paper proposes some strategies for inducing capital flight repatriation, but cautions that the success of this program is contingent on strong political will on the part of African and Western governments and effective coordination and cooperation at the global level.

Suggested Citation

  • Fofack, Hippolyte & Ndikumana, Leonce, 2009. "Potential gains from capital flight repatriation for Sub-Saharan African countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5024, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5024
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-02019073, HAL.
    2. Simplice Asongu, 2015. "On Taxation, Political Accountability and Foreign Aid: Empirics to a Celebrated Literature," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(2), pages 180-198, June.
    3. Simplice A. Asongu, 2017. "Knowledge Economy Gaps, Policy Syndromes, and Catch-Up Strategies: Fresh South Korean Lessons to Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(1), pages 211-253, March.
    4. Simplice A. Asongu, 2014. "Fighting African Capital Flight: Empirics on Benchmarking Policy Harmonization," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 11(1), pages 93-122, June.
    5. Fofack, Hippolyte, 2009. "Africa and Arab Gulf states : divergent development paths and prospects for convergence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5025, The World Bank.
    6. Shafaeddin, Mehdi, 2009. "The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Industrialization of Least Developed Countries," MPRA Paper 18788, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Asongu, Simplice, 2015. "Addressing a Root Cause of Sub Saharan Africa’s Poverty Tragedy: Horizons for post-2015 Common Capital Flight Policies," MPRA Paper 70241, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Simplice A. Asongu, 2015. "Addressing a Root Cause of Sub Saharan Africa’s Poverty Tragedy: Horizons for post-2015 Common Capital Flight Policies," Research Africa Network Working Papers 15/048, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    9. Toyo Amègnonna Marcel Dossou, 2023. "Income Inequality in Africa: Exploring the Interaction Between Urbanization and Governance Quality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 421-450, June.
    10. Simplice A. Asongu, 2017. "The Comparative Economics of Knowledge Economy in Africa: Policy Benchmarks, Syndromes, and Implications," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(2), pages 596-637, June.
    11. Simplice A. Asongu & Vanessa S. Tchamyou & Paul N. Acha-Anyi, 2020. "Who Is Who in Knowledge Economy in Africa?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(2), pages 425-457, June.
    12. Simplice A. Asongu & Joseph I. Uduji & Elda N. Okolo-Obasi, 2020. "Fighting African capital flight: trajectories, dynamics, and tendencies," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 6(1), pages 1-21, December.
    13. Asongu, Simplice A & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2016. "Unjust Enrichment from Official Corruption in Africa: Theory and Model on how Lenders have benefited," MPRA Paper 75416, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Nnaemeka N. Obasi, 2015. "The Impact of Transfer Pricing on Economic Growth in Nigeria," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 5(12), pages 127-138, December.
    15. Dachraoui, Hajer & Smida, Mounir, 2014. "La Mesure de la Fuite des Capitaux et son Impact sur l’Investissement Domestique : Cas des Pays Émergents [Measurement of capital flight and its impact on domestic investment in emerging countries]," MPRA Paper 62740, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Fofack, Hippolyte, 2009. "Determinants of globalization and growth prospects for Sub-Saharan African countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5019, The World Bank.

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    Access to Finance; Economic Theory&Research; Investment and Investment Climate; Debt Markets; Emerging Markets;
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