On 22 November 2023, a coalition of 125 mostly developing countries led by Nigeria won an important United Nations (UN) General Assembly vote on drafting a convention on international rules on tax and combatting illicit financial flows.
The UN vote was a victory for African tax activists who have long demanded that the international community wrest control of global tax reform from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Activists, and many governments, suspect the OECD isn’t an entirely trustworthy custodian of this responsibility. Many of its wealthy member states benefit from dodgy financial practices like domiciling their African operations in offshore tax havens.
The 2015 UN High-Level Panel estimated that at least US$50 billion in illicit finances flowed from Africa annually.
In 2020 the UN Conference on Trade and Development reported that from 2013-15, Africa lost US$88.6 billion on average each year in illicit capital flight.
If…