The African Development Bank (AfDB) says Africa is losing more than $580 billion annually to corruption, profit-shifting, and illicit financial flows. AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, told Bloomberg that the losses are like “pouring water into a leaking bucket.”
According to Adesina, Africa cannot build the future it needs if so much money keeps leaving the continent. AfDB estimates Africa loses about $1.6 billion every day, including $90 billion from illicit flows, $275 billion from profit-shifting, and $148 billion through corruption.
These huge losses make it harder for African countries to deal with their $2 trillion debt burden. The continent already faces an annual gap of up to $170 billion to fund roads, power, and other infrastructure.
A new study shows more than half of African governments now spend more money paying interest on debt than they do on public healthcare. The AfDB warns that unless Africa stops these financial leakages, the debt burden will only get worse, hurting growth and basic services for millions of people.
Ethiopia Loses Up To 30% of Revenue to Illicit Financial Flows
AfDB’s Country Focus Report 2025 on Ethiopia highlights the pervasive nature of illicit financial flows in Ethiopia. According to the report, Ethiopia loses up to 2.2% of annual GDP growth and 10%-30% of government revenue to illicit financial flows every year.
The staggering amount poses a significant challenge to economic stability and resource mobilization in a country already struggling with a chronic foreign exchange shortage, debt distress, and conflict-induced development setbacks.
The AfDB report on Ethiopia identifies trade misinvoicing, particularly import over-invoicing and export under-invoicing as the dominant channels of illicit financial flows, accounting for 55%-80% of the total illicit outflows from Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Policy Institute 