The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently announced preparing a programme of technical assistance and education for African countries, to enable the countries to monitor and regulate their diamond and precious metals sectors, reports say. The IMF also expressed its concern over the rise in ‘links between the trade in precious minerals and illicit financial flows, corruption, drug trafficking, arms smuggling and the financing of terrorism’, reports add.

It believes the programme would facilitate better regulation and order of the precious minerals sector, which in turn can help these African countries tackle such occurrence and increase revenues and better their fiscal situation.

There are six countries from 16 that will be participating in the IMF workshops. These are Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Mali, and Togo. The programme will be funded with contributions from Britain, France, Kuwait, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Switzerland, reports say.