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development finance siphoned from Africa, whether through the extractive industries, or land grabs, are unlikely to be revealed as the IMF scrapped mandatory information exchange. Global watchdogs, such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) remained beholden to high-income nations as a ‘subsidiary’ unit in the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Meanwhile, the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB), founded and finance by the ‘big four’ accounting firms – maintaining units in secrecy jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands – prefers multinationals to self-regulate trade via arms length transfer. What this effectively does is enable multinationals, conducting 60 per cent of global trade within rather than between corporations, to determine the future of entire continents such as Africa, where primary commodities – extracted by corporations, account for 80 per cent of exports.

Studies by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) revealed, ‘Many countries do not have sufficient mechanisms to protect local rights and take account of local interests, livelihoods, and welfare. Moreover, local communities are rarely adequately informed about the land concessions that are made to private companies. Insecure local land rights, inaccessible registration procedures, vaguely defined productive use requirements, legislative gaps, and other factors all too often undermine the position of local people vis-à-vis international actors.’[1]

the presence of tax havens, whether specialising in corporate or maritime services, consistently undermines national and international rule-of-law. This was the case with the capitalist apartheid regime in South Africa, who circumvented oil sanctions through the 'socialist' government of Seychelles. The Iranian revolution evidenced the fall of the US-backed Shah, depriving the apartheid regime of secure oil supplies.

By pyramiding holding companies in jurisdictions characterised by secrecy, the corporate beneficiaries of the apartheid regime were able to access resources and labour on the cheap, while easily navigating global sanctions.

Not much has changed when it comes to the use of secrecy jurisdictions as a means of looting African minerals. Until recently, Sierra Leone’s diamond industry was dominated by two firms: SLDC and Koidu Holdings. The latter was wholly owned by two entities based in tax havens, both of which are directly connected to the UK: Guernsey and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) through BSG Resources, recently implicated as a potential funder for Zimbabwe's Marange fields (via Canadile).