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Old 2006 report that gives perspective to Africa’s economic crisis:

Britain takes away N6.8 trillion from Africa in one year
Thursday, July 6, 2006

Britain took away far more money from sub-Saharan Africa than it gave in aid and debt relief last year, despite pledges to help the region, the charity, Christian Aid, said yesterday. In all, it took away £27 billion from Africa.

In the 12 months since an annual Group of Eight (G8) summit in Scotland last July, the British economy gained a net profit of more than £11 billion ($20.3 billion) from the region, Christian Aid said.

The charity calculated that almost £17 billion flowed from Britain to sub-Saharan Africa in the past year, including donations, remittances from salaries earned by Africans in Britain and foreign direct investment.

At the same time, more than £27 billion went in the opposite direction, thanks to debt repayments, profits made by British companies in Africa and imports of British goods and capital flight.

The findings came after British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, put tackling African poverty at the heart last year’s G8 summit of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States.

“The conclusions from this are stark,” said Claire Melamed, Christian Aid’s senior trade analyst. “The British government and its people sometimes think that because we are one of the best aid givers among the rich nations, that we are making real progress on poverty. This is just not the case,” she said in a statement.

“In order for aid and debt relief to be really effective, we have to plug the leaks of resources from Africa to rich countries like Britain.” Melamed named the main culprits as large corporations and rich individuals who took £22 billion from sub-Saharan Africa last year in profits and capital flight — defined as the, often illicit, transfer of funds from wealth holders in one country to banks or other financial institutions in another.

“This money could have been used to build up local economies in Africa but instead, it sits in British banks,” she said. “The British government must take action to close the tax loopholes and end the banking secrecy which allows capital flight to flourish,” she said. Christian Aid, a charity based in Britain and Ireland that tackles poverty and injustice, said London donated £1.35 billion worth of aid and debt relief last year and paid out nearly £7 billion for importing goods.

An estimated £460 million flowed out in remittances from salaries earned by Africans in Britain and there was an estimated £6.8 billion in foreign direct investment by British firms, making the £17 billion total.

As for the £27 billion flowing out of African, this included debt repayments of over one billion pounds from Nigeria and other African countries to Britain, over £4 billion worth of profits made by British firms, plus nearly £4.5 billion worth of imports of British goods.

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