Nigeria on verge of exiting FATF money laundering grey list – NFIU

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has announced that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has approved three additional grades in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing efforts, marking the fifth progress report since Nigeria was greylisted in February 2023.

FATF, established in 1995, is the global body tasked with leading actions to combat money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing.

The organisation greylisted Nigeria due to increasing capital inflows and deficiencies in addressing money laundering, terrorism, and arms financing.

In a statement issued on Sunday by the NFIU’s Strategic Communications Office in Abuja, the FATF granted the approval during a meeting of the Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) Technical Commission, which took place between November 17 and 23, 2024, in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Statutorily, Nigeria is now compliant (C) or largely compliant (LC) in 37 out of the 40 FATF recommendations, leaving three more to address.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, who also serves as Nigeria’s National Correspondent (NC) for ECOWAS (GIABA), led Nigeria’s delegation to the meeting.

Included in the delegation were representatives from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Ministry of Justice (FMOJ), the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA).