Africa is losing money. Wealth of Nations works with the continent’s leading journalists and media organisations to investigate how this happens and expose those responsible.
Wealth of Nations is an award-winning programme run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in collaboration with some of Africa's leading organisations promoting excellence in journalism. In 2017 it won Best Capacity Building Project at the British Expertise International Awards, which recognise outstanding international work done by UK-based organisations.
The programme recognises that, despite the poverty seen across the continent, Africa is wealthy in natural resources and human capital.
Wealth of Nations aims to form a strong, well-trained, independent media able to investigate and expose the financial manipulations that stop Africa from flourishing. The programme is supported by a grant from Norway’s development agency, Norad.
The problem
Despite receiving large sums of money through foreign aid and remittances, Africa loses larger amounts to illicit financial flows - money that pours out of economies through aggressive tax avoidance, corruption, smuggling, and other means. These illicit flows deprive African nations of vital tax revenues that could be spent on social programs including healthcare, education and basic infrastructure, and bleed countries of funds that could otherwise be invested in projects to create jobs and drive development. Illicit financial flows cost Africa an estimated US$30-60 billion annually.
But reporting on illicit flows is a major challenge for the media, requiring knowledge of complex financial agreements and access to carefully hidden information. This makes it a largely untold story.
The approach
Wealth of Nations works with journalists and media in a variety of ways to address these problems, including:
If you or your media organisation is interested in taking part in the programme, please find out how to get involved.
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Norad's General Condition on Transparency
In line with the Norad grant’s general conditions on transparency, the grant recipient is mandated to publish the title and value of any contracts, cooperation agreements and/or other sub-agreements of more than NOK 500 000 (or the equivalent in local currency) financed by the Grant. The name and nationalities of the respective agreement parties should also be published.
Below is a table containing the required information for the relevant contract(s).
Title of contract, cooperation agreement or sub-agreement |
Name of agreement party |
Contract value (inc contract currency) |
Nationality/Country in which the party is registered |
TRF MASTER IT Services Supply Agreement |
SPONGE UK LIMITED |
GBP 61,896 + VAT |
UK |