Despite more than two decades of anti-corruption strategies supported by the international community, Africa remains the continent where corruption costs the most: 148 billion dollars per year according to the African Development Bank, representing 25% of continental GDP. This article examines the paradoxical failure of anti-corruption policies in Africa and identifies the causes of a major methodological impasse. The analysis reveals that despite the multiplication of international conventions, specialized national agencies and legislative reforms, the gap between implemented mechanisms and obtained results continues to widen. The article documents the multiple dimensions of this failure: continuous aggravation of economic, financial and environmental costs; selective justice and elite impunity; ineffectiveness of "ghost agencies" created to satisfy international donors; perverse effects of perception indicators; and excessive bureaucratization of the international fighting system. The study demonstrates that the dominant behavioralist approach – which aims to moralize individuals without securing structures – is fundamentally unsuited to the systemic nature of African corruption. This methodological impasse requires a paradigmatic break from an ethical logic to a structural logic of patrimonial flow neutralization
Armand Salouo (Mon,) studied this question.