54 African countries to meet in Abuja over recovery of stolen assets

Fct-Abuja City Gate

Representatives of 54 African countries are expected in Abuja from 17 to 20 November for the maiden General Assembly of the African Asset Recovery Practitioners’ Forum (AARP-F), as the continent seeks stronger cooperation in tracing and recovering stolen public funds.

The Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Hassan Mohamed, announced this on Saturday at a pre-conference media briefing in Abuja.

Mr Mohamed, who is also the Director of Special Services at the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), noted that some countries would participate virtually.

He explained that the meeting would bring together anti-corruption agencies and other institutions involved in asset recovery to share experiences and develop common strategies for tackling cross-border financial crimes.

“The purpose of the programme is to harmonise, to synergise, synthesise, come up with strategies to deal with this menace,” he said.

The assembly, scheduled to be held at the Abuja Continental Hotel, has the theme, “From Commitment to Action – Enhancing Africa’s Asset Recovery Architecture through Effective Implementation of the Common African Position on Asset Recovery (CAPAR).”

The forum was established in Nairobi, Kenya, in April 2025, to strengthen cooperation among African institutions involved in tracing, freezing, confiscating and recovering proceeds of crime.

Its work is centred on implementing CAPAR, which the African Union adopted in February 2020 to provide a common framework for recovering assets taken out of Africa through corruption and other financial crimes.

Nigeria proposed the policy, which was adopted by African heads of state and government at the AU’s 33rd Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Mr Mohamed said African countries continued to lose billions of dollars through corruption and illicit financial flows, depriving governments of resources needed for public services and development.

He stated that stolen assets were often moved across national borders, making cooperation between countries necessary to trace and recover them.

He also stressed that recovering the assets was not enough without proper management and accountability over their eventual use.

“Every successfully recovered public asset represents an opportunity to redirect resources towards the needs of citizens, improve public service delivery, strengthen institutions and rebuild confidence in governance systems,” he said.

Mr Mohamed said the ICPC would make information about assets recovered by the commission available to the public, including their ownership and status.

Asked whether the commission would periodically publish such information, he said: “Definitely, ICPC will do that. Nothing is hidden. It’s a public document. Anything recovered is for the public. And so, ICPC will definitely declare anything and whatever has been recovered.”

However, he could not provide figures for the value or number of assets recovered by Nigeria when asked whether the country would present such information at the assembly.

He noted that he did not have the details available at the briefing.

The commission has previously published figures on its recovery activities. Its 2023 annual report recorded N66.896 billion in assets recovered, seized, forfeited or restrained, including N57.134 billion in cash recoveries.

In a separate announcement, the ICPC reported recovering N37.44 billion and $2.353 million through asset seizures and forfeitures in 2025.

Mr Mohamed said the assembly would also allow countries to exchange information about their recovery efforts, noting that some governments did not publicly disclose details of assets they had recovered.

He stated that Nigerian authorities planned to take delegates to some locations to see how recovered assets were being used.

The assembly is expected to attract heads of anti-corruption agencies, asset recovery practitioners, representatives of Financial Intelligence Units and international development partners.

Participants will review progress in implementing CAPAR, examine challenges facing asset recovery institutions and consider governance instruments and action plans to improve cooperation.

Mr Mohamed said the meeting should produce practical commitments rather than end with discussions and policy declarations.

He urged journalists to scrutinise the decisions reached and report whether participating countries followed through on their commitments.

He said African governments must ensure that CAPAR moves beyond being a policy document and becomes a framework for concrete action at national and regional levels.