Action Aid Zambia Interim Country Director Kijala Shako says the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) can do more to curb illicit financial flows in the country’s extractive industry.

According to first secretary for press at Zambia’s Embassy in Ethiopia Inutu Mupango, Shako said this when Action Aid directors from eight countries paid a courtesy call on Zambia’s Ambassador Susan Sikaneta.

Shako singled out the forensic Audit on the extractive industry as a positive move that would ensure that all finances accumulated in the sector were accounted for.

She said it was important for ZRA to collect additional taxes for the country’s economic development while finding other ways of broadening the tax base.

Shako said her organization was working with relevant government ministries to ensure that the problem of illicit financial flows in the extractive industry in Zambia is curbed.

She said her organization was in Ethiopia to visit the African Union Commission, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa –UNECA- and Permanent Representatives Committee to reveal progress on the realization of agenda 2063 and its impact on the citizenry.

And Ambassador Sikaneta said it was unfortunate that Africa was losing money which could have been used for development through illicit financial flows.

“We have been told through the Thabo Mbeki Committee that the United States know in which financial institutions some or most of this money has been put, but we are not seeing efforts to get this money back to Africa where it came from” Ambassador Sikaneta said.

She urged Action Aid to work closely with the African Union to ensure that the problem of illicit financial flows receives adequate attention.

Ambassador Sikaneta also commended Action Aid for the programmes that it working on in uplifting the lives of the poor in society, especially the women, the youth and peasant farmers.

And Sikaneta urged youths in country to venture in Agriculture as their means of livelihood and not only opt for white-collar jobs.

She said the problems of unemployment amongst the youths could be reduced if they ventured into profitable agriculture and agrarian related activities.