The Anatomy of the Resource Curse: Predatory Investment in Africa’s Extractive Industries

While the natural resource curse is typically considered an economic phenomenon, access to abundant natural resource revenues also has profound effects on governance and the politicization of the security sector. Given the opaque nature of many of the transactions involved, relatively little is known about how these relationships work in practice.

This Special Report delves into the often murky linkages between senior government officials, unscrupulous natural resource investors, and the loopholes they exploit in the international financial system. By tracing the actions of the Hong Kong-based Queensway Group, a major actor in Africa’s extractive sector, the report provides a detailed portrait of the mechanics that perpetuate the inequitable development, weak institutions, and instability so frequently observed in Africa’s resource-rich countries.

Based on reporting by ACSS