Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa Groupe Intergouvernemental d’Action contre le Blanchiment d’Argent en Afrique de l’Ouest Grupo Intergovernamental de Acção contra o Branqueamento de Dinheiro na África Ocidental
PRESS RELEASE
Nigeria Exits FATF Global Compliance Monitoring List; Sao Tome and Principe Handed Over to GIABA
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), today Friday, 18 October 2013, in a Public Statement issued at the end of its Plenary meeting held in Paris, France, from 14 to 18 October 2013, removed Nigeria from the list of countries identified as jurisdictions with significant deficiencies in their Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes.
In a Public Statement issued today, October 18, 2013, “The FATF welcomes Nigeria’s significant progress in improving its AML/CFT regime and notes that Nigeria has established the legal and regulatory framework to meet its commitments in its Action Plan regarding the strategic deficiencies that the FATF had identified in February 2010. Nigeria is therefore no longer subject to FATF’s monitoring process under its on-going global AML/CFT compliance process. Nigeria will work with GIABA as it continues to address the full range of issues identified in its Mutual Evaluation Report”.
The removal of Nigeria from the list is evidence of her productive and continuous engagement with FATF and GIABA to improve her AML/CFT regime. The outcome of the on-site visit of the FATF International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) to Nigeria in September, 2013, noted that Nigeria has substantially completed the technical items on her Action Plan and that there is political commitment and institutional capacity to continue to implement AML/CFT reforms.
In October 2009, the FATF conducted a preliminary review of the Nigerian AML/CFT regime and identified some strategic deficiencies upon which the FATF engaged with Nigeria to develop an Action Plan to address those deficiencies. The Action Plan that was subsequently developed, included specific actions that Nigeria was expected to address in five areas, namely:
1. Criminalize Terrorist Financing (TF) in accordance with the FATF Standards and relevant Conventions. 2. Implement the UNSCRs 1267 and 1373 through law, regulations or other necessary measures, and ensure that there are appropriate procedures to freeze, seize and confiscate terrorist funds. 3. Establish whether the current money laundering legislation captures all the required predicate offences, and make any necessary amendments to the AML legislation or the underlying criminal code (bearing in mind that Nigeria has adopted an all crimes approach to the ML offence). 4. Ensure that the requirements of FATF Recommendation 5 have been set out appropriately in law or regulation and other enforceable means, and that they apply to all financial institutions covered by the FATF definition; and 5. Clarify the respective AML/CFT responsibilities of the NFIU and the three financial services supervisory bodies (the CBN, the SEC and NAICOM), and demonstrate that they are undertaking effective AML/CFT supervision across the financial sector.
In February 2010, Nigeria made a political commitment to implement the Action Plan. In February 2011, as a result of certain set backs in the implementation of the Plan, particularly the delay in the passage of the revised Money Laundering (Prohibition) and Terrorism Prevention Acts, Nigeria was considered not to be making significant progress and was consequently placed on a Public Statement by the FATF drawing attention of the International Community to the outstanding deficiencies.
The FATF is the global standard setting body for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT). In its efforts to enforce greater compliance with acceptable International Standards, the FATF, in collaboration with FATF Styled-Regional Bodies (FSRBs) undertake targeted review of countries/jurisdictions identified with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies with a view to protecting the international financial system from Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) risks arising from such deficiencies. The main criteria for the targeted review of countries include the poor rating of a country’s AML/CFT system in a Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) of that country and whether the estimated size of the banking assets is in excess of $5 billion (USD).
It may be recalled that Nigeria was subjected to this review process based on the deficiencies identified in its Mutual Evaluation Report, which was adopted by GIABA in May 2008, as well as the size of its banking assets which was above $5 billion (USD). Accordingly, GIABA will now continue with the monitoring of the situation in Nigeria as appropriate.
It may also be recalled that Nigeria had gone through the FATF Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCTs) review process and was delisted in June 2006. Nigeria has the largest economy in West Africa. It is also a founding member of GIABA and ECOWAS and has made immense contributions to the growth and development of these institutions.
In the same Public Statement of today, the Republic of Sao Tome and Principe (STP), another member of GIABA which has been under the FATF International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) process of the FATF based on some strategic deficiencies identified in its AML/CFT regime since 2007 was removed from the ICRG process and handed over to GIABA for ongoing monitoring. The FATF stated that “Sao Tome and Principe was earlier identified in the FATF’s Public Statement. While Sao Tome and Principe’s AML/CFT framework still contains a number of strategic deficiencies, given the small size of this country’s financial sector and its low impact on the international financial system, the FATF decided that Sao Tome and Principe should continue to work closely with GIABA to address its remaining AML/CFT deficiencies”.
The Director General of GIABA, on behalf of the staff and member States of GIABA, welcomes these developments and commends and congratulates Nigeria on this remarkable achievement. With these developments, coming after the removal of Ghana from the FATF Public Statement in February 2013, meaning that, no other GIABA member State is under the FATF review process. The Director General wishes to reassure all members of GIABA of its closest cooperation and support to enable them effectively implement acceptable standards against money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing and, encourages them to rededicate themselves towards the implementation of the recommendations in their respective mutual evaluation reports.
GIABA is a specilized Institution of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as well as the FATF Style Regional Body in West Africa mandated to among others, ensure compliance with International AML/CFT Standards within the region and provide Technical Assistance to its member States.
Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa Complexe SICAP, Point E, Immeuble A 1er étage, Av. Cheikh Anta DIOP x Canal IV BP. 32400, Dakar-Ponty, Senegal Tel: (+221) 33 859 18 18 / 33 824 17 52 Fax: (+221) 33 824 17 45 [email protected] www.giaba.org