BY MICHAEL EBOH & CHINEDU IBEABUCHI

The Inter- Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, GIABA, yesterday, lamented Nigeria’s slow response to tackling the issue of money laundering and terrorism financing.

Speaking at the Committee of Chief Compliance Officers of Bank in Nigeria’s, CCCOBIN, Second International Conference on Customer Due Diligence, in Lagos, Dr. Abdullahi Shehu, Director General, GIABA, said the posture of the country towards tackling these financial crimes is a stigma to the image of the country and is a major contributory factor to its continuous blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force, FATF.

According to him, despite the huge resources GIABA has invested in assisting member states to develop their anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism, AML/CFT  policy framework, only two member states — Ghana and Guinea Bissau — have approved the necessary strategies.

Shehu said the essence of the AML/CFT strategies is to ensure that the actions of member states as regards financial transactions are guided accordingly and to allow for effective measurement.

He said, “The essence of the strategy is to ensure that the actions are guided within the strategies, because the strategies consist of actions, and what will be the measurable indicators with the actions they are going to take.

“Last year, we supported Nigeria. The national strategy framework has been developed in principle. But that strategy is yet to be adopted by the Nigerian government.

“It has to be adopted by the government, in which case, either the executive council will approve it or the appropriate Minister will have to assent to it for it to become a policy.

The GIABA boss further stated that the Agency has undertaken the revision of the FATF Standards which place enormous obligations on financial institutions and Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions, DNFBPs.

For Nigeria to be seen as effectively tackling the issues of money laundering and terrorism financing, Shehu said the country must review its AML/CFT laws to ensure that all the 21 designated predicate offences are adequately criminalized in accordance with the revised FATF standards.

He disclosed that the revised standards place emphasis on continuous monitoring; identifying risks, developing policies and ensuring domestic coordination.

He further stated that the Standards is predicated upon combating money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation; and applying preventive measures to safeguard the institutions involved in financial intermediation and designated sectors.