Niger: NGOs complain over alleged loss of $99m in state funds

Niger, the poorest country in the world according to the benchmark of the UN’s Human Development Index, is struggling with a reputation for corruption and volatility. On Thursday, Ali Idrissa of the Nigerien Organisations for Budgetary Transparency and Analysis said he and other associations combed through an audit of 2021 state spending handed to President Mohamed Bazoum last month. On April 10, Bazoum said on Twitter, “about 30 senior state officials, guilty of embezzlement or misappropriation, are currently languishing in prison and will remain there for a long time”. "Une trentaine de hauts cadres de l’Etat, coupables de malversation ou détournement, croupissent actuellement en prison et y resteront longtemps…" #MB #PRMB1AN pic.twitter.com/csLdkzWIva — Mohamed Bazoum April 10, 2022 Later the same month, a judicial source said Niger’s communications minister had been detained in a high-profile embezzlement case dating from when he ran a state corporation. Mahamadou Zada was being held in relation to a probe into the loss of 3 billion West African CFA francs from Sopamin, a corporation which manages state holdings in the mining sector, that occurred while Zada was its chairperson between 2013 and 2021, the source said.