The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Egmont Group

  • Egmont Group never discussed Nigeria’s expulsion

    NIGERIAN Financial Intelligence Unit’s (NFIU) expulsion from the Egmont Group was never on the agenda of the group’s last meeting in March, it was learnt yesterday.

    This is contrary to media reports prior to the meeting held in Argentina between March 12 and 15 that the NFIU would be expelled over governance issues, including lack of operational autonomy.

    A source told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that what came up for discussion concerning the NFIU on March 13 was the adoption of a letter addressed to the unit by the head of the Egmont Group.

    In the letter, which followed the NFIU’s suspension from the global financial intelligence sharing body in July, 2017, Egmont demanded three remedial actions from Nigeria for the suspension to be lifted.

    The first two demands border on provision of a legal framework to guarantee the operational autonomy of the unit and protection of intelligence received by it through the group’s intelligence sharing web portal.

    The third demand requests Nigeria to submit its status report on actions taken on the first two at the group’s next meeting on June 1.

    The source said: “Egmont Group never said they were going to expel the NFIU in January or March this year as falsely reported in the local media; it was never an issue.

    “They only said that if Nigeria did not address their concerns, the country risked expulsion. You can see the confusion.

    “Where they got their information that Nigeria was going to be expelled in January or March, I don’t know.”

    A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting on March 15 is silent on the fate of the NFIU, lending more credence to the source.

    As at the time of filing this report, Nigeria remained suspended on the group’s membership web page.

    The source, who asked not to be named, decried the negative impact of the “media hype” on the country’s image abroad, especially among foreign direct investors.

    A section of the media had reported that Nigeria’s expulsion from the group would come with grave consequences for the country, including being blacklisted in international finance.

    This, according to them, could affect the use of MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards issued by Nigerian banks.

    The source noted: “Some members of the international community monitoring the development are already saying, ‘look, what is wrong with your country?’

    “‘Are you not looking at the negative impacts that all these stories are going to have on foreign direct investments in Nigeria?’

    “A potential foreign investor, who hears the stories may not make effort to verify the authenticity of those claims before saying ‘Oh, Nigeria is a no-go area’, and then we have lost that investment.”

    He said other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Italy and El Salvador, also had issues in their Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) that were even worse than Nigeria’s, but hardly talked about them in their media.

    When contacted for comment, the Director of the NFIU, Mr. Francis Usani, declined to speak on the matter, saying it was against Egmont’s principles for him to do so.

    The Egmont Group is an international body made up of 155 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) representing its member countries, including the United States and Britain.

     

     

  • Anxiety ahead of Egmont Group meeting today

    •No cause for alarm, say presidency sources

    There are palpable fears in some quarters that the outcome of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units meeting which begins today may not be in the best interest of the country. The reasons for this are not farfetched.

    The fear is coming at the back of Nigeria’s suspension by the Group July last year, due largely to the absence of operational autonomy for the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, domiciled as an administrative FIU in EFCC at the moment.

    Specifically, the concerns include absence of an Act of the National Assembly creating an independent Financial Intelligence Unit. It should be understood here that the Group does not approve of the one, (Administrative FIU) the EFCC created in 2007, which does not treat suspicious financial intelligence it gets with confidentiality.

    The body had emphasised that “The measure will remain in force until immediate corrective actions are implemented. The FIU, Nigeria is now excluded from all Egmont Group events and activities. The Egmont Group expressed its hope that the Nigerian authorities will address these concerns to enable the Egmont Group to lift the suspension as soon as possible.”

    Following the public outcry, the upper and lower legislative chambers had last week signed the bill separating the NFIU from EFCC and make it domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    Speaking with separate economic analysts, they lamented that the country stands to face blacklisting from the comity of nations, especially in the circle of international finance. “The immediate consequence is that this could affect the use of credit cards, as the credit lines offered by corresponding banks would be cut off. In fact, financial instruments from Nigeria may not be honoured abroad.”

    Echoing similar sentiments, the President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Aminu Gwadabe, while speaking on the implication of expulsion from the Group said the country does not need such experience before taking action.

    According to Gwadabe, should such suspension occur, Visa, MasterCard and other credit cards issued by Nigerian financial institutions would be rejected by global financial institutions.

    Checks by The Nation however revealed that the Presidency is yet to get a clean copy of the bill for the president assent.

    However, informed sources at the National Assembly who would not be named confided in The Nation that there was no cause for alarm as the bulk of the work has been done save for minor administrative work.

    “The fact that the major hurdle over the bill has been crossed as such, what is left for now is just minor administrative work. The Egmont Group can indeed see that the lawmakers have gone out of their way to address all the grey areas they talked about which led to our suspension last July.”

    • FULL STORY ON PAGES 38-39

     

  • Egmont Group may expel NFIU

    T he Egmont Group may expel the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU),it was learnt yesterday.

    The group comprises of 153 countries which mandates its members to establish a financial intelligence unit that serves as a national centre for the receipt and analysis.

    This is because although the NFIU has been separated from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but the move has to be approved by the Senate.

    The delay in securing such approval could affect use of MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards by Nigerians. It could also affect the international rating of Nigerian financial institutions, restricting their access to some big-ticket international transactions, The Cable reported.

    Nigeria will also no longer be able to benefit from financial intelligence shared by the other member countries, including the US and the United Kingdom.

  • EFCC, Magu frustrating anti-graft war – Malami

    EFCC, Magu frustrating anti-graft war – Malami

    The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Wednesday accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and its Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, of frustrating the Federal Government’s anti-graft war.

    Malami, in a statement issued in Abuja, alleged that Magu and the EFCC leadership have “manipulated and misused intelligence to the detriment of the fight against corruption and financial crimes in Nigeria.”

    He also accused them of working to prevent the lifting of the country’s suspension by the global financial intelligence gathering body – Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (Egmont Group) and ensure the country’s formal expulsion.

    The Egmont Group, currently made up of 156 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), representing 156 countries, serves as a platform for exchange of expertise and financial intelligence to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and functions as the operational arm of the international anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) apparatus.

    Nigeria, represented in the group by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), was suspended on June 1, 2007 because the NFIU lacks independence and was subject to the control of the EFCC via the provision of the Section 1(2)(c) of the EFCC Act.

    The group demanded autonomy for NFIU as a condition for the country’s readmission, failing which it would be expelled.

    Since the nation’s suspension, Malami and Magu have been unable to agree on how to meet the condition set by the Egmont Group for the country’s readmission.

    While the AGF wants the creation of an autonomous NFIU, detached from the EFCC, and has send a Bill to the National Assembly to that effect, Magu wants NFIU to remain part of EFCC, but with mere re-organisation of its operations.

    In the statement issued for the AGF by his spokesman, Comrade Salihu Othman Isah, Malami frowned at Magu’s hard stance on the issue and noted that the uncooperative attitude of EFCC’s leadership could encourage the Egmont Group to carry out its threat to expel the country.

    Malami regretted that Magu appeared not to understand the implication of Nigeria’s expulsion from the group on government’s efforts to combat corruption, terrorism, money laundering and other related vices.

    The AGF, who insisted on ensuring the separation of NFIU from the EFCC, praised the Senate for passing the Bill for an independent NFIU and urged the House of Representatives to urgently pass similar Bill currently pending before it.

    The statement reads: “The EFCC is now in a state of paranoia, as it dreads the effort of the government to have an independent NFIU, which it has stood against stoically since 2006.

    “As it presently stands, the NFIU staff are all deployed by the EFCC to serve in the interest of whoever is its current Chairman. This has to stop if it must conform to the new thinking and global best practice. Nigeria cannot be an island of its own. It cannot fight corruption in isolation.

    “The threat of expulsion from the Egmont Group calls for a thorough review of the NFIU and the manner in which the EFCC leadership has manipulated and misused intelligence to the detriment of the fight against corruption and financial crime in Nigeria.

    “To achieve the desired goal, NFIU needs to stand alone as an agency with full complements of power to recruit its staff and an annual budgetary allocation guaranteed for its operations.

    “Its independence must be ascertained in the new law to set up Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency (NFIA) to enable it carry out its mandate, which shall include responsibilities for receiving, requesting, analysing and disseminating financial intelligence reports on money laundering, terrorist financing and other relevant information to law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies, and other relevant authorities.”