Ghana is reported to have lost about $50 billion dollars through capital flight over the last five decades, a report published by a Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Prof. Léonce Ndikuma.

The study investigated domestic and global drivers of capital flight from selected African countries including Ghana, Cameroon, and Zambia, which are significantly endowed with natural resources.

The report stated that the $50 billion loss was mainly recorded through misreporting of trade values by companies in the gold mining and the cocoa industry.

In the area of gold, it was noted that the export values recorded by Ghana did not correspond with the value of gold received by the country of destination.

The lack of proper reconciliation can be cited in 2020 to 2021, when Ghana recorded about $15 billion in exports of gold to South Africa.

In the area of cocoa, the losses recorded were minimal due to the government's controlling stake in the trade of cocoa.

However, Ghana controls a share of 4.0% of the cocoa value chain by virtue of being a producer while a whopping 79% of the value chain is controlled by the processing and distribution sector of the industry.

The report also stated a cumulative private wealth of about $56 billion with 110 Ghanaian multimillionaires having more than $10 million in equity.  With this, the report recommended that Ghanaian business owners invest in the development of the value chain of these sectors.

In total, Africa lost about $2 trillion through capital flight from 1971 to 2018.

The report which was put together is titled “Capital Flight from Africa and Perverse Global Connections: Analysis and Possible Solutions”.