BY MICHAEL AKINOLA
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede has joined a league of other Heads of Anti-corruption Agencies in Africa to consider new initiatives functional enough to drive an all-embracing involvement of stakeholders in preventing and combating the scourge of corruption.
The week-long Conference, which took off on Monday, May 5, 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa, was convened by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Republic of South Africa.
In a Welcome Remark, Head, Special Investigating Unit, South Africa, Andy Mothibi, expressed delight at the massive attendance of anti-graft czars across the continent and reinforced the need to continue to tackle corruption issues in all the nations.
The Conference is themed: “Enhancing an Inclusive Participation of State and Non-State Actors to Prevent and Combat Corruption” and a galaxy of Resource Persons are on hand to build strength on it. Specifically, Olukoyede will on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, chair a session on “Strategies and Legal Frameworks for Improving the Effectiveness of Anti-Corruption Agencies”.
He will lay bare the intrinsic and extrinsic modalities that can deepen and strengthen anti-corruption efforts through the use of extant laws.
One important discourse that drew rapt attention from participants was a presentation on “Closing Africa’s Integrity Gap with Ai-Enabled Systems That Induce Behavioural Change” by Dr. Olu Ajayi. According to her, the fight against corruption and artificial intelligence are like cousins in the sense that they are capable of bringing to the open hidden fraudulent practices. “AI can expose hidden patterns of corruption, reduce human discretion where bribery thrives, empower citizens to speak out and predict and prevent corruption”, she said.
The Conference will consider country reports and progress on anti-corruption issues in an open, exhaustive and professional manner with a view to building sustainable peer review strategies and synergy to tackle the menace of graft.
Experts from various jurisdictions and competences are expected to deliver papers. Olukoyede will deliver Nigeria’s progress report on corruption on Thursday.
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