African countries have called for the formation of a joint working committee with the G7, central banks and civil society to stop large sums of money being lost by the continent each year to illicit capital outflows.

The call was made on Friday at the two-day Summit for a New Global Financing Pact held in Paris, France, which started on Thursday.

It comes almost a decade after former South African President Thabo Mbeki sounded the alarm on the shocking scale at which Africa was losing-billions each year to illicit capital outflows.

In 2013, Mbeki said close to $50-billion (R934-billion) was being lost to money laundering, and in 2016 he said the figure had ballooned to nearly $100-billion being lost yearly.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, speaking at the closing ceremony of the summit, echoed Mbeki's concerns.

"Huge sums of money are taken from the continent illegally and illicitly. Around $100-billion is being lost in illicit outflows, according to a UN panel led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki," said Akufo-Addo.

He added that stopping this illicit flow and bringing the money into play in the most impoverished continent could drastically reduce poverty and accelerate climate change goals. As a result, he said, African countries had called for the establishment of a committee to look into this illicit money flow.

Akufo-Addo said:We have proposed that the G7 establish a joint working committee to track and seek ways of stemming the flow of this money laundering while finding ways of ensuring that this money is reintroduced to the African fiscus.

His utterances came a day after President Cyril Ramaphosa told the summit and, by extension, funders that South Africa needed some changes to its clean electricity deal and a lot more funding to achieve its just transition targets.

Ramaphosa said the socioeconomic realities of a country seeking to transition to more just energy usage and lower carbon emissions should be factored in, while more funding needed to be provided for such a mammoth undertaking.

He said South Africa had learnt numerous lessons since announcing in 2021 its ambitious, long-term Just Energy Transition Partnership with various developed counties, as it seeks to accelerate its decarbonisation efforts.

The partnership is aimed at hastening the decarbonisation of South Africa's economy, focusing on the electricity system, to help it achieve its updated nationally determined contribution goals on emissions.

As such, the country was able to mobilise an initial commitment of $8.5-billion for the first phase of financing through various mechanisms, including grants, concessional loans and investments, and risk-sharing instruments.

"A [just transition] plan like this needs to be centred on the own country's challenge and experiences. It should not be imposed on any country.

"In our case, we have had to take into account our own experiences as a country; challenges such as unemployment and poverty; and also dealing with a history of division. So, any plan of this nature that helps a country to transition should take into account the circumstances of any country that is going through that type of plan," he said. Ramaphosa also said South Africa needed to take into account the impact of such commitments on locals before committing.

"The second lesson is that we have had to say this should be a just transition and [it must] take into account the existential situation of various communities, particularly workers who work in fossil fuel establishments.

"What happens to them when we transition? What happens to their job security and the communities that live in those areas? All that needs to be considered Any country that embarks on this journey must define what a just transition is going to be and what it would look like," Ramaphosa said.