The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been commended for its effort in tackling corruption in Nigeria. The Director General, Intergovernmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Mr. Kimelabalou Aba made the commendation on Thursday, September 25, 2019, when he led a delegation of GIABA on advocacy visit to the EFCC, Headquarters in Abuja, in preparation for the 2nd rounds of Mutual Evaluation Exercise of GIABA member states.
According to him, the visit was to seek EFCC support and to re-assure the authorities of GIABA’s commitment to the successful conduct of the mutual evaluation, which he said would lead to the improvement of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) in the region.
He further explained that the meeting was also meant to intensify the ongoing efforts in addressing the existing shortcomings that may be identified through mutual evaluation in order to facilitate the expeditious consideration of Nigeria’s application for the membership of Financial Action Task Force,FATF.
Receiving the delegation on behalf of the Acting Chairman,Ibrahim Magu, the Secretary to the Commission, Olanipekun Olukoyede assured Aba and his team of EFCC’s readiness to support and partner with GIABA.
“We are ready to cooperate with GIABA and give them all the necessary support and information they need in the pursuit of the campaign, adding that the strength of EFCC in combating economic and financial crimes has been strict adherence to international best practices”, he said.
He stressed the fact that EFCC is part of the global effort in combating money laundering and that whatever action plans are recommended to the Commission, to enable it to conform to global standard will be adopted as the Commision remains the foremost law enforcement agency in Africa.
The Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) is meeting with stakeholders in Dakar to discuss the global emerging trends in Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism, with a specific aim of understanding the implications for GIABA member States and the importance of expanding the support base of AML/CFT in the region.
It would be recalled that GIABA member states had agreed to subject themselves to a mutual assessment process in conformity with international standards for preventing money laundering and financing of terrorism as contained in Articles 12 to 14 of the GIABA Statute.
The scope of the Evaluations is to assess whether the necessary laws, regulations and other measures required under the essential criteria are in force and effect, that there has been a full and proper implementation of all the necessary measures, and that the AML/CFT system as implemented is effective.
GIABA has before now, adopted the FATF procedure in the evaluation of member states. The evaluated country is rated depending on the efficacy of measures put in place to detect, prevent and sanction cases of money laundering and terrorist financing.