Tag: Anti-money laundering

The Federal Government has begun moves to exit global financial body grey list by May this year, The Nation gathered yesterday.

Nigeria has since February 2013 been listed on the grey list of the Financial Task Force (FATF), a global body responsible for monitoring of financial transactions, illicit financial flows, terrorism and  proliferation of firearms.

President Bola Tinubu had directed the new management of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) headed by Barrister Hafsat Bakari to work with other relevant agencies to ensure that Nigeria exits the grey list of the global financial body by May.

The government, through the efforts of the National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, (NFIU) kick-started the initiative at a stakeholders’ meeting held at NITDA headquarters in Abuja at the weekend.

The Chairman, House Committee on Information and Communication Technology and Cyber Security, Honourable Adedeji Olajide also attended the meeting.

According to a statement from the office of the Head of Corporate Affairs of NITDA, Hajiya Hadiza Umar, the initiative was a directive of the President for the NFIU to develop and implement an Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financial Terrorism/Counter Proliferation of Firearms Data Management Framework in collaboration with NITDA.

She disclosed that the technical session to kick start the process  of Nigeria’s exit from the grey list began at the NITDA Headquarters in Abuja with the Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, saying that the timeline given by Mr President remained sacrosanct.

The Director General said the enlistment of the country into the Grey List was occasioned by seven issues among which are the rising capital inflows into the country, the shortcomings in combating money laundering, the shortcomings in combating arms financing and the shortcomings in combating terrorism financing.

He listed other factors as “the nation’s deficiencies in anti-money laundering regime, counter-terrorism financing regime and counter arms proliferation financing regime.”

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He noted that the desire of the President to combat corruption and financial crime through innovation and technology necessitated his directive to NITDA to work with NIFU to build a system that would help NFIU to better manage financial data and compliance in the country.

“Today we are kick starting a meeting to start that project that will take us out of the Grey List and build that robust system. The main objective of the system is to help us with global compliance; to help Nigeria position itself as a key player in the global effort to combat financial terrorism and other crimes.

“This will help us to create visibility in Nigeria as well as improve our global reputation and relationship in the financial market,” Inuwa said.

The NFIU Chief Executive Officer, Barrister Hafsat Abubakar Bakari described the project as a “game changer” because it would not only help the country exit the grey list as directed by the President but also  improve the Data Integration Management System for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism, (AMLCFT.)

Chairman, House Committee on Information and Communication technology and Cyber Security, Hon. Adedeji Olajide assured both NITDA and NFIU of legislative support in their quest to secure the country against illicit financial flow and other vices.

Dakar, June 13, 2024 (NAN) GIABA, an inter-governmental action group against money laundering in West Africa, says Nigeria recorded significant achievements in its war against money laundering and terrorism financing in 2023.

GIABA said this in its 2023 annual report unveiled for ambassadors of member states, technical and financial partners on Thursday in Dakar, Senegal.

According to the report, Nigeria made progress in addressing the technical compliance identified in GIABA’s Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) in relation to various recommendations made to the country.

The report further said Nigeria had taken several measures to promote transparency and accountability in the administration and management of non-profit organisations (NPOs).

It added that the country also raised awareness in the financial sector about the vulnerabilities to Terrorist Financing (TF), developed and refined best practices in collaboration with the NPOs sector to address the deficiencies and challenge information on NPOs suspected to be at risk in terrorism abuse.

“Nigeria demonstrated that it has mechanisms for international cooperation and procedures to respond to international requests for information on NPOs suspected of terrorist financing or involved in other forms of support for terrorists.

“Nigeria demonstrated that it has a system for maintaining statistics on its Anti-money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system,” the report said.

Despite the progress made in the country, the report said the requirements for application of simplified due diligence measures were not consistent with the country’s assessment of money laundering and terrorism financing risks.

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It added that the country did not demonstrate compliance with its internal procedures to designate target pursuit to United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR).

The report noted that GIABA had discussed and adopted the MERs of Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, and Guinea, which indicated that 88 per cent of the member states had been assessed.

It said the performance of Cote d’Ivoire showed that the country required major improvements in its AML/CFT regime in relation to its understanding of the risks, among others.

Similarly, the report said Liberia had demonstrated low effectiveness on 10 of the 11 parameters, noting that its shortcomings had impacted effectiveness such as lack of comprehensiveness of National Risk Assessment (NRA) in some areas.

It also said Guinea demonstrated low effectiveness on all the 11 parameters, indicating that the country required fundamental improvements of AML/CFT regimes.

Earlier, GIABA’s Director General, Mr Edwin Harris Jr, said this year marked the 24th anniversary of the fight against money laundering, “a mandate that has evolved to adapt to changes, and which now includes the fight against the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

“GIABA is the response to the call of the international community for an alliance against transnational organised crime and its harmful effects on peace, security, stability and economic development of our member states.

“In June 2006, through relentless efforts and stakeholders’ mobilisation, GIABA was granted the status of a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-Style Regional Body (FSRB) and in June 2010 became an Associate Member of FATF.