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Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has given the assurance that Ghana would collaborate with the African Union to combat Illicit Financial flows out of the continent.

He said currently the government had empowered the Intelligence Centre to be able to deal decisively with illicit financial flows out of the country.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur gave the assurance when Mr Thabo Mbeki, former South African President led a ten-member delegation from the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows out of Africa on a visit to Ghana.

The High Level Panel which has already submitted its report to the African Union made some key recommendations in the report aimed at combating the illegal movement of funds out of the continent.

The panel is currently in the West African Sub-region soliciting the views of member states on the recommendations of its report.

Besides, the team is also expected to hold sessions with the governments of the Northern and Central African regions and report back to the AU

Vice President Amissah-Arthur stated that Ghana had always frowned on such activities as money laundering and prohibitive transfer pricing, and that the country was fully in support of the course of the Panel.

Mr Thabo Mbeki on his part stated that the Panel was currently in the sub-region to solicit for opinions from member countries on the recommendations of the report

He said the assessments from the member countries would go a long way to help curb the debilitating problem of illicit financial outflows from Africa.

He said illicit outflows drained a country’s foreign exchange reserves, reduced tax collection, cancelled investment inflows and worsened poverty.