Anti-money Laundering: Nigeria Moves To Exit FAFT Grey List

Nigeria has made further significant steps in its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, achieving upgrades on five key recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The upgraded recommendations include measures related to beneficial ownership transparency and regulation of designated non-financial businesses and professionals (DNFBPs).

This progress was highlighted during the 42nd GIABA Technical Commission and Plenary Meeting held from November 17 to 23, 2024, in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The development means Nigeria was compliant or largely compliant with 37 out of the 40 FATF recommendations currently.

Recall that Nigeria was placed on the FATF ‘grey list’ on February 24, 2023, alongside South Africa.

Since its inclusion, Nigeria has actively worked to enhance its regulatory framework, submitting multiple progress reports to demonstrate improvements.

The CEO of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, said as of October 2024, Nigeria has completed approximately 30 per cent of the required actions and was on track to exit the ‘grey list’ by May 2025.

Bakari, who led the Nigerian delegation to Sierra Leone and also chaired the Technical Commission, expressed optimism about Nigeria’s compliance efforts.

According to her, “Through the concerted efforts of all public and private sector stakeholders involved in our financial integrity systems, we have successfully upgraded our status on critical recommendations.”

She also stressed the importance of continued collaboration among stakeholders, noting that: “We are confident that with sustained effort under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and key ministers, we will complete all remaining actions before our deadline in May 2025.”

Meanwhile, the FATF and GIABA have commended Nigeria’s proactive measures, reinforcing its commitment to combating financial crimes and enhancing international cooperation.