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The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit has said the Financial Action Task Force has approved the fourth progress report since greylisting the country in February 2023.
FATF is the global body established in 1995 to lead global action to combat money laundering, terrorist, and proliferation financing.
The organisation had greylisted the country due to a rise in capital inflows and deficiencies in combating money laundering, terrorism, and arms financing.
In a statement on Friday by the NIFU’s Strategic Communications Office in Abuja said the FATF gave the approval at its October Plenary Meeting which was held in Paris, France.
The NFIU added that Nigeria was adjudged to now have strong systems in place for international cooperation to address serious crimes including asset recovery, strengthened systems for national coordination to fight terrorism, and to have effective measures to ensure the non-profit sector is not used to finance terrorism.
It partly read, “During the meeting, the FATF approved Nigeria’s 4th Progress Report since the inclusion of the country on the list of jurisdictions under monitoring, the so-called grey list, in February 2023.
“In the report, Nigeria was adjudged to now have strong systems in place for international cooperation to address serious crimes including asset recovery, strengthened systems for national coordination to fight terrorism, and to have effective measures to ensure the non-profit sector is not used to finance terrorism.”
The NFIU noted that Nigeria has made progress on the implementation of an Action Plan to address the deficiencies that were identified in the country’s 2021 AML/CFT Mutual Evaluation Report.
“Since its inclusion on the list, Nigeria has made progress on the implementation of an Action Plan to address the deficiencies that were identified in the country’s 2021 AML/CFT Mutual Evaluation Report. ”
The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, Mrs. Hafsat Bakari, who is in Paris for the meeting stated, “Through the concerted efforts of all public and private sector stakeholders who are involved in Nigeria’s systems to ensure the integrity of the financial system, we have been able to complete almost half of the items that were included in the country’s action plan to exit the grey list.”
In other decisions at the Paris Plenary meeting, the FATF also updated its grey list; following the successful completion of its action plan, Senegal has now been delisted, while Algeria, Angola, Cote D’Ivoire, and Lebanon have now been added to the monitoring list
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