Thursday, 6th November, 2025
Hon Rita Naa Odoley Sowah
Dadekotopon
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to make this Statement before this respected House.
I rise with deep admiration and conviction to draw the attention of this honourable House to an extraordinary continental movement led by a determined daughter of Africa, Diawara Affoué Yasmine, a 34-year-old cyclist, activist and visionary from Côte d’Ivoire. She launched a bold transcontinental journey titled WIRI, meaning “Where Innovation Rises”, cycling from Korhogo in northern Côte d’Ivoire through own country Ghana and onwards to Cape Town, South Africa. She successfully completed the journey after crossing 11 African countries in total. It was far more than a physical expedition, it became a campaign of consciousness, a travelling manifesto of resilience and reform. Her journey stood as a declaration without slogans and an act of advocacy in motion.
Mr Speaker, in the Dioula or Malinké language, Wiri means “to stand”. This was a charge to this generation to rise with clarity, creativity and courage. Yasmine’s expedition challenged the continent to believe in itself, ideas, people and power to disrupt entrenched systems. Mr Speaker, from remote villages to bustling capitals, she rode with purpose, not for fame, not for leisure, but to mobilise Africa’s most sacred asset, its youth. A youth population that continues to expand by 20 million each year, yet too often finds itself at the mercy of global financial amnesty and institutional inertia. Through this mission, she called attention to the opportunities before us and the urgent reforms required to seize them.
Mr Speaker, she rides for economic justice, for gender equity and for a truly sustainable Africa. An Africa built on integrity, heritage and the aspirations of its own people. Her initiative, Agenda Africa, dares to confront the structural inequities in the global financial order. It insists on climate reparations grounded in justice, not debts, and it affirms our continent's ability to mobilise our own resources through transparent governance, fair tax systems and inclusive economic models. These ideals were echoed and reinforced at the 2025 African Parliamentary Network on Illicit Financial Flows and Taxation (APNIFFT) Continental Conference, held in Johannesburg this October, where African parliamentarians, civil society leaders and policy experts marked a decade of action against illicit financial flows.
Mr Speaker, the conference called for renewed legislative commitments to fiscal transparency, equitable tax systems and citizen-centred governance. It emphasised the need for Africa-led solutions to global financial injustices, aligning perfectly with the ethos of WIRI. Through WIRI, Ms Diawara also gave life to several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including SDG 4 - Quality Education, SDG 5 - Gender Equality, SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 9 - Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 13 - Climate Action and SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
In each country, she stopped to spotlight young changemakers, particularly women who were spearheading grassroots solutions in education, technology, environmental preservation and civic participation. Mr Speaker, this mission aligned perfectly with the sustained advocacy within this Parliament and throughout our continent for affirmative action. Inclusive governance and women's leadership are not secondary demands; they are fundamental prerequisites for sustainable development.
Yasmine Diawara’s work reflected the spirit of transformative feminism where women are not simply invited to participate but entrusted to design, lead and implement change, from the front lines. She reminded us that women’s leadership is central to sustainable development. Progress must be inclusive. A society that sidelines its women and youth cannot truly move forward.
Ghana indeed welcomed her with warmth and pride. We offered our institutional and moral support to her campaign, ensuring that our country would be remembered not merely as a point she passed but as a nation that shared the burden, believed in the message and amplified the mission. Yasmine’s path connected more than capitals–it united hearts, elevated voices and ignited minds. It told every African girl that leadership does not always wear a suit. Sometimes she wears cycling gear and carries hope across deserts and borders.
Let it now be permanently recorded that this Parliament recognised the courage and clarity of Yasmine Diawara. She did not wait for doors to open; she forged new ones with every paddle stroke. In doing so, she inspired us all, especially our daughters, to rise boldly and claim their rightful place in shaping Africa’s future.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity.
Hon Hamza Adam
Kumbungu
Thank you so much for the opportunity, Mr Speaker.
Let me thank Hon Rita Odoley Sowah for the detailed submission. Mr Speaker, I am very much impressed about the task that has been taken up by our dear sister. She has proven that what men can do, women can do that better. Many times, we hear about men cycling, walking and all that, but we have not heard much about that from women, so her initiative will go into the record as one of the heroes that we have registered from the female gender.
One very touching aspect of the submission that I have picked up has to do with the gender. Our sister is mobilising resources, to support rural communities, to get bicycles. In fact, if one happens to walk in some of the deprived communities, some of the students, including girls, walk up to five or six kilometres on foot trying to go to school. Our Hon Minister for Education started something in Tamale which was so good. He started buying bicycles for school children randomly because a lot of them go through struggles.
If a child, going to school on a particular day is lucky and chances upon him, he would just tell the child to go somewhere and pick a bicycle. That was the generosity that he exhibited in trying to support that. So, the initiative by our dear sister, particularly mobilising bicycles to support girls in rural areas, will go a very long way to support their effort to pursue education. On this note, I would not want to talk too much. I once again would thank the maker of the Statement for that insightful presentation.
I thank you for the opportunity.
Hon Abdul Kabiru Tiah Mahama
Walewale
Mr Speaker, I think that we probably have a lot to do, so I would be brief.
Our Sister draws our attention to the rule Yasmine Diawara makes as a young person. I would comment on the things that she was advocating for. First and foremost, in her campaign; journey over 8,000 kilometres across 11 African countries, she is advocating against, one, illicit financial flows. The data on illicit financial flows has been staggering. Recently, we had an opportunity as Finance Committee to have an engagement on this matter. The data suggests that Ghana, as a country lost about US$1.6 billion between the year 2019 and 2020 to unaccounted gold exports, which is part of the broader illicit financial flows.
Mr Speaker, not only that, between 2002 and 2011, about US$14.33 billion were lost to trade misinvoicing. This speaks to the importance of the issue that Ms Diawara was campaigning for. Aside that, she is standing for tax fairness. Taxation is at the heart of fiscal policy, and if a young lady of 34 years is drawing global attention to issues of tax fairness, you would understand why we need it.
Mr Speaker, we complain that our tax system is retrogressive, where the poor is made to bear the burden of taxation at the expense of the rich when they should be paying more for the purpose of shared responsibility. Last but not the least is youth employment. These are all important issues that we would have to acknowledge that her adventure, advocacy, and campaign of cycling over 8,000 km across 11 countries is something that we would need to actually encourage.
Mr Speaker, my last issue also draws our attention to the impact of the youth in change-making; youth as agents of change. The young lady is only 34 years old, and she has made huge impact, attracting attention from institutions such as Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA). This is an important institution that is so much careful about illicit financial flows. For a young person to embark on a campaign that would attract the attention of institutions like Africa Agenda is something worth commending.
Mr Speaker, just yesterday, in New York, a young gentleman, Zohran Kwame Mamdani, also made history as a young person in changing the paradigm with which politics is done in the United States by actually standing against political dynasty for a long time. As a young person, many people thought he could not do that. But yesterday, he took the world by storm and won decisively against all the odds. So, this speaks to the impact young people can make and the ability for young people to influence.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I want to note that we would have to look at the issue of Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). I think that as a House, this young lady should not only be drawing our attention, but we must also be an example of the initiative she is taking. I am happy that the African Parliamentary Network on Illicit Financial Flows and Taxation (APNIFFT) is collaborating and receiving her in their deliberation. I am sure that once we have such, we should encourage them. I want to say congratulations to Ms Diawara for this initiative. The people of Ghana and Africa as a whole are so proud of her achievement, and for her contribution to the development of Africa.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Hon Haruna Iddrisu
Tamale South
Mr Speaker, let me thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement ably made by Ms Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, and to commend her for bringing matters of economic justice, gender and equity in Africa, and to join her in celebrating Yasmine Diawara for what she stands for.
Mr Speaker, she states that she is not doing this for fame nor for leisure, but to mobilise Africa’s most sacred asset; its youth. That is succinct. Africa today has a youthful population of about 400 million between the ages of 15 and 35. Ghana itself has a growing youthful population of 11.7 million, estimated to reach 17.7 million by the year 2050.
Mr Speaker, in Ghana, our youth between the ages of 15 and 35, represents 38.2 per cent of the population. What that provides is that we should invest more in education, particularly for that youthful age. Successive governments have done that and are doing that. But part of the challenge is—I am just commenting on the SDG of quality education. In Ghana, at all levels of education, quality education is delivered. But the concern is the disparities in the provision of quality education between urban and rural areas, and between public and private schools. More quality in the private schools and less in the public schools; more quality in urban institutions and less in the rural areas. We need to correct that. For instance, in the recent school placement which happened following the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), there are no category A schools in the North East, Savannah Region, Oti and Western North Regions.
Mr Speaker, we have to be deliberate about it if young people in those areas are to be assured of access to senior high school education. Mr Speaker, finally, manifestos win elections, but to change a country is development plan. We must learn as a country to align our budget to the implementation of defined national development plans. Ghana needs one. What successive governments in the last decade have done is that every two years, they come and lay the national development plans before here. I saw Prof Gyan-Baffour lay one; I saw Mr Seth Terkper lay one; I saw Mr Ken Ofori-Atta lay one; and Dr Ato Forson would soon lay one. But, after the laying, are our Budgets responsive to the pursuit of those development plans?
Mr Speaker, I end it here, by commending the maker of the Statement. She could not have asked for a more poignant point than transparency in governance, particularly fair taxes. This is to the world; the tax havens are neither in Ghana nor Africa where you hear— Even looted money, when people steal, they go and hide them far away abroad. That is what we must avoid. He takes the money, then in the name of a shell company, takes it to a country abroad. We need a fair tax system, but it must begin with multilateral corporations on the moneys they are making from Africa. How come that mining, even cocoa, forgive me but Europe may be profiting more from Ghana's cocoa than Africa may be profiting from its cocoa. That is not acceptable. We need to change the narrative.
Mr Speaker, once again, we want to commend the Hon Deputy Minister and pray that all of us will make a contribution to better gender equity to build a truly sustainable Africa. But for Africa to achieve this, it needs investment in infrastructure and education. Thankfully in Ghana, more girls are going to school now than it used to be. If you look at the population of young girls who have been admitted to secondary school, it is an encouraging number.
I thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Mohammed Amin Adam
Karaga
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Let me also express my profound gratitude to the maker of the Statement, and in particular to commend Ms Diawara for the campaign, particularly on the matter of illicit financial flows, which continues to be a problem, not just for developing countries, but even for the developed countries and we must muster the courage and mobilise all the resources that we can to combat illicit financial flow. Illicit financial flow deepens poverty levels in developing countries because it deprives us of resources that we could apply to education, provision of health services, and also towards the general development of our country. There are areas where illicit financial flows are prominent. The extractive industry is one such area. This area of development is very opaque, and because of that, illicit financial flows are finding their way deeply into extractive industries in any country. Ghana is no exception. I understand that Ghana loses almost US$40 million every year through illicit financial flows from the extractive industries alone. If we were to add what we lose from other industries, that could be colossal sums of money that we are losing to illicit financial flows.
Mr Speaker, some of the practices through which this occurs are money laundering, tax avoidance schemes, under-invoicing, transfer pricing, among others. Fortunately for us, Ghana has some provisions in the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896) to address this. However, these are not far-reaching enough. There are still weaknesses and gaps in our legal frameworks towards addressing illicit financial flows.
In fact, last year, the current Minister for Finance and I were planning to write a book on illicit financial flows. Unfortunately, we could not do that. Now that he is Minister for Finance, I hope this House will support him when he brings Bills or amendments towards strengthening the legal provisions towards addressing illicit financial flows so that we can have a regime that is tight enough to ensure that we conserve these resources that we are losing out to support the general development of our country. Mr Speaker, there are different ways of addressing this.
First, mandatory contract disclosure is one. We have to ensure that all contracts that are signed within the extractive industry are disclosed so that we will know beneficial owners, all the stakeholders involved in those businesses, and we will be able to track the money that goes to the beneficial owners. If we can do this, I am very confident that we will reduce illicit financial flows through contract opacity. The second is capacity building. Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is implementing the tax provisions towards illicit financial flows, but I can tell you that they have technical challenges, and therefore, Government will have to resource GRA to provide the technical capacity they need to be able to administer the tax provisions that are targeting illicit financial flows.
Also, international collaboration is important. We cannot do this alone. We need to be able to sign on to international conventions that are targeting money laundering and illicit financial flows. Ghana is already a member of the Financial Action Tax Force on money laundering, and I believe this House will help by making the necessary laws that will enhance the implementation of the regulations under the Financial Action Tax Force because they will all go a long way, not just to help the international space, but also our country and developing countries, in particular, towards conserving the resources that we are losing out to support the development efforts of our countries. With these few words, let me once again thank the maker of the Statement for bringing this to the fore of this House.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
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