The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has praised Nigeria’s efforts to exit the greylisting of the country by the global financial watchdog.
The commendation was given by the officials of the organisation at a meeting between the Nigerian delegation to the plenary meeting of the group in Paris, France, officials of the FATF and the United States of America.
Also, during the 40th GIABA Technical Commission and Plenary Meetings held in Abuja recently, Nigeria’s progress was reported and commended by the Vice-President of the FATF. Jeremy Weil, who attended the meeting.
After the plenary, Nigeria’s 2nd progress report was adopted including approval of upgrades against six of the FATF criteria. The country is now compliant or largely compliant with 32 of the 40 FATF recommendations demonstrating its continued commitment to improving its Anti Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework.
The FATF had in February placed Nigeria on its grey list and expected the country to make significant improvements in 15 areas.
The Director/CEO of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Modibbo Tukur, said that based on the efforts made by all bodies in Nigeria to tackle the identified areas, the country was able to tackle 13 out of the 15 action points identified.
In the FATF process, once a country is grey-listed, it is given an Action Plan which details the actions it is expected to take within agreed timelines to demonstrate the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime, and, therefore, exit the greylist.
Nigeria was placed on the grey list in February 2023 and was given a 15-item Action Plan with deadlines spanning up till May 2025.
The inclusion of any country in the list is predicated on an agreement that the country has engaged with the FATF, has taken steps to improve the effectiveness of its AML/CFT systems and has expressed political commitment at the highest levels to sustain this progress.
Also, countries under the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) grey list are expected to report on progress achieved in the implementation of the action items every four months, at the FATF plenary meetings. Therefore, no country is expected to evidence the complete implementation of all its action items within the first progress report.
In fact, the average timeframe for countries’ exit from the FATF grey list is two (2) years. For example, Barbados, Jamaica & Uganda have been under the process since February 2020. Many other jurisdictions have remained on the grey list since 2021. They are not failing the FATF review, but are only expected to sustain progress and implement action items before agreed timelines.