Illicit Enrichment and Unexplained Wealth in Africa

This book offers a governance-centred analysis of unexplained wealth regulation in post-colonial states. Moving beyond conventional doctrinal approaches, the book argues that unexplained wealth regimes are not merely technical legal innovations, but diagnostic instruments that expose the institutional and political conditions under which accountability is pursued. Drawing on comparative socio-legal analysis of Nigeria and Kenya, alongside high-capacity jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Ireland, it demonstrates that the effectiveness of asset recovery mechanisms depends less on statutory design than on judicial credibility, institutional coordination, political insulation, and the integrity of evidentiary processes.

Challenging culturalist explanations of corruption, the book situates illicit enrichment within historically produced political economies shaped by colonial administration, elite bargaining, and transnational financial networks. It advances the concept of the “informational pipeline” to explain why enforcement often fails even where legal frameworks appear robust. By integrating comparative law, political economy, and post-colonial analysis, this study reconceptualises unexplained wealth as a governance problem rather than a purely legal one, making a sustained and original contribution to global debates on anti-corruption law, legal transplants, and state power.

The book will be a valuable guide for students, academics, policymakers, international banking law practitioners and those interested in economic and financial crime from a developing and emerging economies perspective.