Justicia Shipena
Illicit financial flows (IFFs) cannot be left to the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) alone, Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) director Bryan Eiseb has warned.
He said treating IFFs as a narrow tax issue would be “a myopic approach” in today’s “business unusual” environment.
He stressed that IFFs are a national development threat that requires coordinated action from all key institutions.
Eiseb made the remarks on Thursday during the graduation ceremony of Namibia’s first cohort under the EU-funded SecFin Africa project.
The one-year programme trained officials from the Bank of Namibia (BoN), NamRA and the FIC to address tax losses linked to withholding tax on services and to strengthen Namibia’s response to illicit financial flows.
Eiseb said the project is expected to help reduce illicit financial flows from around 9% of GDP in 2025 to about 5% by 2030, in line with Namibia’s sixth national development plan (NDP6). He applauded the participants for their perseverance and commitment to protecting the country’s financial integrity.
EU Ambassador to Namibia Ana-Beatriz Martins said the graduation demonstrates how sustained cooperation strengthens institutions and supports Namibia’s work to exit the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.
“Today’s graduation shows how practical, sustained partnerships, such as the SecFin Africa project, translate into stronger institutions, improved financial integrity, and real progress in addressing the root causes of IFFs,” she said.
She explained that illicit finance moves easily across borders and deprives countries in Africa and Europe of vital resources.
She said over the past decade, illicit financial outflows from Africa have nearly equalled the continent’s total annual inflows of development assistance and foreign direct investment.
The SecFin Africa project is part of the EU’s support for Namibia’s anti-corruption, AML/CFT and financial governance reforms.
Martins said these show how Namibia and the EU are building a coordinated, multi-agency response to illicit finance.
“We have built not just capacity, but a network of stakeholders working towards a common goal,” she said.
Africa loses at least €76 billion every year to illicit financial flows.
The SecFin Africa project, which was launched in August 2024, aims to assist 49 African countries over the next four years through capacity-building, institutional strengthening and improved cross-border cooperation.
