LUSAKA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government has urged the World Bank to help it deal with the illicit financial flows in the country, a senior official said on Saturday.

The remarks were made by Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe when she attended the inaugural session of the 2018 World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings in Washington, the United States.

Mwanakatwe said that illicit financial flows were still a huge challenge for Zambia which needed concerted efforts to deal with.

"In order to eradicate the scourge, the World Bank must play a critical role in supporting the identification, tracking and prevention of infusion of illicit financial flows in local financial systems," she was quoted by a statement released by the Zambian Financial Ministry as saying.

Stakeholders have voiced their worries over illicit financial flows in Zambia, especially by multinational corporations and mining firms, which has deprived the southern African nation of the much needed funds for development.

Zambia loses about 3 billion U.S. dollars annually due to illicit financial flows, according to the Financial Intelligence Center, a government agency that tracks financial flows in the country.