Between 1980 and 2018, Africa lost 1.3 trillion US dollars to corruption/illicit financial flows (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 12, 2024). Africa loses 120 billion US dollars to corruption every year (The East Africa, ,June 18, 2025). Africa loses 25% of GDP to corruption every year (africa24tv, 23 May 2025). Institutionalized corruption in African countries has led to, and still lead to severe and far-reaching negative impacts on the poor people, exacerbating poverty, inequality, and social injustice and death, which I explore below:
1. Reduced or no access to resources: corruption diverts money meant for public services (healthcare, education, infrastructure) into private pockets, leaving the poor without essential support. This has led to increased mortality rates due to lack of medication, inability by the poor to travel to specialized hospitals due to poor transportation infrastructure and systems. This is clearly presented in "The Impact of Infectious Diseases on the Development of Africa "( Boutayeb. A, 2010 , Transparency International 2024).
2. Increased Cost of Living: bribery in government services (police, permits, utilities) has forced, and forces the poor to pay extra fees from their meagre disposable income leaving without income to pay for necessities of life (Njangang, H., Asongu, S. A., & Mouchili, E. 2024).
3. Land and Property Theft : Corrupt officials and elites often seize land from vulnerable communities without fair compensation. This aggravates poverty and leave the poor without income to afford the necessities of life (Hope, K.R. 2000, Transparency International 2024).
4. Poor quality and lack of Public Services, Healthcare Deficiencies: Stolen funds lead to understaffed hospitals, lack of medicines, and higher mortality rates among the poor (Hope, K.R. 2000, Njangang, H., Asongu, S. A., & Mouchili, E. 2024, Transparency International 2024).
5. Barriers to Education: Many schools in impoverished areas in Africa lack resources and proper structures.making it difficult for the poor to attain good quality of education. Illiteracy perpetuates and reinforces a vicious cycle of poverty (Hope, K.R. 2000, Njangang, H., Asongu, S. A., & Mouchili, E. 2024, Transparency International 2024). This has prevented human capital development, research and development in innovation and technology.
6. Poor Infrastructure: Roads, water systems, and electricity projects are neglected or poorly executed when public funds are embezzled, making daily life such as commuting to hospitals, schools, job centres, difficult for the poor. Corruption has made it extremely difficult for African countries to achieve even a quarter of each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable development goals (Hope, K.R. 2000, Njangang, H., Asongu, S. A., & Mouchili, E. 2024, Transparency International 2024).
In brief, institutionalized corruption has violated the human rights of the poor people of Africa and made it difficult to achieve all the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals - a strong ground for the United Nations to declare corruption a "Grave abuse of Human Rights".
References
Africa24tv, 23 May 2025. Africa loses 25% of GDP to corruption every year (africa24tv, 23 May 2025). Available online at: https://africa24tv.com/africa-corruption-nearly-25-of-gdp-lost-yearly
Boutayeb, A. (2010) The Impact of Infectious Diseases on the Development of Africa. In: Preedy, V.R. and Watson, R.R., Eds., Handbook of Disease Burdens and Quality of Life Measures, Springer, Berlin, 1171-1188. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78665-0_66
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 12, 2024. African Strategies to Combat Illicit Financial Flows: Available online at: https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/11/illicit-financial-flows-africa-tax?lang=en.
Hope, K.R. (2000). Corruption and Development in Africa. In: Hope, K.R., Chikulo, B.C. (eds) Corruption and Development in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333982440_2
Njangang, H., Asongu, S. A., & Mouchili, E. (2024). Does corruption starve Africa? The mitigating effect of political distribution of power. Journal of policy modeling, 46(1), 171-197.
Transparency International, June 2024. Left Behind. Corruption in education and health services in Africa. Available online at: https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/Report-LeftBehind-Corruption-in-Africa.pdf
The East Africa, June 18, 2025: Africa loses $120bn to graft. Available online at: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/business-tech/africa-loses-120bn-to-graft-5085874