Mr Matthew Page,an Associate Fellow of Chatham House , Mr Matthew Page,has disclosed that over $400m is being laundered by politicians through real estate proxies abroad.
Mr Page, a resource person at a capacity building for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission
investigators, disclosed that over 800 properties in London and Dubai worth over $400m are owned by Nigerian politicians and are held by proxies
Page emphasized the need for the investigators of the ICPC to pay attention to real estate and education sectors-linked illicit financial flows.
He noted that illicit financial flows have provided opportunities for politically exposed persons (PEPs) in Nigeria to launder money through real estate and education sectors.
The ICPC Chairman, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, speaking about the capacity building programme, said it would help investigators to track illicit financial flows, money laundering and other areas the government is losing revenue and recover such funds.
According to him:“The loss of revenue is a major challenge to developing countries, particularly Nigeria. The meeting is therefore designed to build the capacity of our investigators to enable them to trace the areas in which the government is losing money, look for the likely places people hide money, stop the illicit financial flows, and recover the funds.
“We are already working with the FIRS and getting a lot of tax evaders and defaulters into the nation’s tax net. One of the takeaways from here is the kind of question an investigator needs to ask in tracking IFFs and money laundering,” Prof. Owasanoye explained.
He added that the commission has dragged about 2,000 corporate entities into the country’s tax net. Owasanoye said the 2,000 corporate entities were uncovered by investigations undertaken by the Commission, and their names have been forwarded to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for profiling.
He said: “Some of these entities are not registered and do not pay tax while others are registered but still do not pay tax. The ICPC has been able to recover significant amount in taxes for the government.”
He advocated the need to widen the revenue base, improve tax collection, combat tax evasion and illicit financial flows as well as asset recovery to improve the country’s finances.
