The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in
West Africa (GIABA) on Friday announced plans for Nigeria to be evaluated for
money laundering and terrorism financing in 2017. GIABA is a specialised
institution of ECOWAS that is responsible for strengthening the capacity of
member states toward prevention and control of money laundering and terrorism
financing in the region.
The GIABA Representative in Nigeria, Mr Timothy Melaye,made the
disclosure when he paid an advocacy visit to the Lagos office of the National
Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
Melaye said the visit was to forge possible collaboration between
GIABA and NAPTIP, especially in building capacity of the agency’s personnel
ahead of next year’s Mutual Evaluation of Nigeria. “The Financial Action Task
Force (FATF), an independent inter-governmental global body, has concluded
plans to carry out a Mutual Evaluation on money laundering and terrorism
financing in Nigeria in 2017. “Mutual Evaluation is a Peer Review
Mechanism whereby countries are rated on all issues that borders on money
laundering and terrorism financing. “We are currently on advocacy visits to the
relevant agencies so that Nigeria should prepare to avoid being blacklisted
again as a country with high risk of money laundering and terrorism
financing,’’ he said. The representative said that it was imperative for
NAPTIP and other relevant agencies to redouble their efforts in fighting
trafficking in persons and other related crimes.
Melaye assured NAPTIP of his organisation’s readiness to work with
it in making sure that next year’s Mutual Evaluation on Nigeria would be
encouraging to FATF. He also said that GIABA would henceforth include
NAPTIP in its capacity building programmes within and outside the
country. The NAPTIP’s Lagos office Zonal Commander, Mr Joseph Famakin, who
commended the representative for the visit, said that the collaboration was a
welcome development.
Famakin, however, urged GIABA not to restrict the advocacy visit
to NAPTIP’s Lagos office but to also visit its Headquarters in Abuja. He
said that his organisation had come up with new laws aimed at enhancing the
organisation’s responsibilities as well as expanding its operations to
financial investigations. “NAPTIP currently has enough instruments for not just
to bark but bite. “We strongly believe that there are so many things that
this agency and GIABA can do together to ensure that Nigeria’s ratings becomes
encouraging next year,’’ he said.
Culled from: Vanguard Newspaper
