Ghana
and Nigeria are making tremendous progress and achievement in the fight against
the twin crimes of money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF), a news release
from the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in WestAfrica (GIABA) has said.
According
to the release from the GIABA Information Centre in Nigeria on Friday, Ghana
has made significant progress in improving its Anti-Money Laundering and
Counter Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime hence the Financial Action TaskForce (FAFT) has excluded the country from its list of countries with
deficiencies in AML/CFT regime.
Initially, FAFT - global standard setting body for
anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism - blacklisted Ghana
due to the country’s lack of progress in improving its AML/CFT regime and also
called on member countries to consider the risks and be cautious in doing any
transaction with Ghana.
Following this, the
release said Ghana developed an Action Plan to address the strategic
deficiencies identified in its AML/CFT regime, with the support of FATF and
GIABA, an arm of ECOWAS mandated to clean the sub-region of the twin crimes of
Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (ML/FT).
In October 2010,
Ghana made a political commitment to implement the Action Plan within one year.
