{"id":30689,"date":"2023-07-14T09:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T09:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions"},"modified":"2023-07-14T09:58:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T09:58:44","slug":"illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions","title":{"rendered":"ILLICIT TRAFFICKING BLEEDS AFRICA OF BILLIONS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Illicit trafficking in minerals, wildlife, people, weapons, finance, narcotics, cyber-theft and other commodities costs African economies well over US$100 billion in value annually.<\/b><\/p>\n

This is according to panellists who debated in a session on how to combat illicit trafficking opportunities by the public and private sectors during the ongoing US-Africa business summit at Royal Aria in Tlokweng on July 13.<\/p>\n

The panelists, among them the Minister of Defence and Security Mr Kagiso Mmusi were also in consensus that by somea\u0302\u20ac \u0304calculations,a\u0302\u20ac \u0304the drain through illicit trade in all its forms significantly outpaced the annual value of official developmenta\u0302\u20ac \u0304assistance.<\/p>\n

The consensus was also that these illicit flows resourced transnational criminal organizations that fueled unrest, conflicts, corruption and undermined democratic and accountable governance within and far beyond Africa\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

Making his contribution, Mr Mmusi said illicit trading was also a challenge for Botswana as it was globally, and that it was vital to tackle it as a collective by all government law-enforcing entities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Botswana, illicit trafficking was initially an issue of anti-poaching because it was mostly in wildlife, but it has since spread to other forms, so we had to come up with a process of ensuring that our law enforcement units worked together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Mmusi also said if left to thrive, illicit trading had the potential to impact the legitimate growth of national economies.<\/p>\n

He, however, said Botswana had made efforts in combating the trade as it passed 16 laws in 2020, which he said government will ensure to enforce.<\/p>\n

The Director General of the Financial Intelligence Agency, Ms Bopelokgale Soko said to effectively address illicit trading globally, the first step was to criminalize its financing.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom then, we should ensure effective systems support across borders.<\/p>\n

Criminals normally look for the weakest point so if one country has weak laws or enforcement they will thrive there,\u201d she said, and advocated for a need to share intelligence and data.<\/p>\n

Ms Soko also said Illicit trading should be made unprofitable and unattractive to kill it off. Another speaker, Mr Joseph Bank of Lockheed Martin International said that the current harm by illicit trading could be felt for even decades to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the private sector, we also have interest in the fight against illicit trading because we lose business to it. We should consider employing technology, such as the usage of drones in anti-poaching,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Bank said this also had the potential to create legitimate employment.<\/p>\n

Other speakers said countries should intensify security checks at borders, especially since it had been discovered that although illicit trafficking was in many forms, perpetrators were mostly the same people all across.<\/p>\n

The debate explored the prospect for enhanced partnerships between private sector companies witha\u0302\u20ac \u0304expertisea\u0302\u20ac \u0304in various areas to better enable African governments and multilateral organizations to detect, assess, analyse,a\u0302\u20ac \u0304identify, interdict, prosecute and hold accountable those perpetrating illicit trafficking.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Illicit trafficking in minerals, wildlife, people, weapons, finance, narcotics, cyber-theft and other commodities costs African economies well over US$100 billion in value annually. This is according to panellists who debated in a session on how to combat illicit trafficking opportunities by the public and private sectors during the ongoing US-Africa business summit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-30689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nILLICIT TRAFFICKING BLEEDS AFRICA OF BILLIONS - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Illicit trafficking in minerals, wildlife, people, weapons, finance, narcotics, cyber-theft and other commodities cos ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ILLICIT TRAFFICKING BLEEDS AFRICA OF BILLIONS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Illicit trafficking in minerals, wildlife, people, weapons, finance, narcotics, cyber-theft and other commodities cos ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-14T09:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-14T09:58:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2023\/07\/sm_1689312147.21283.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"ILLICIT TRAFFICKING BLEEDS AFRICA OF BILLIONS\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-14T09:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-14T09:58:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions\"},\"wordCount\":498,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2023\/07\/sm_1689312147.21283.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illicit-trafficking-bleeds-africa-of-billions\",\"name\":\"ILLICIT TRAFFICKING BLEEDS AFRICA OF BILLIONS - 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