Top African Countries Involved in Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing

Top African Countries Involved in Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing, FATF majorly promotes policies to protect the global financial system by evaluating different regions based on its Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation (AML/CFT/P) standards.

The black list or high-risk group are countries or jurisdictions that have strong deficiencies in countering ML and TF and just includes three countries – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran and Myanmar.

The grey list category is for countries (21) that are currently collaborating with the FATF to work on the strategic deficiencies in their governments to counter ML and TF.

The FATF evaluates over 200 countries and jurisdictions that have declared interest in implementing the FATF’s Standards with the help of nine FATF Associate Member organisations and other global partners like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Recall Nigeria was placed on the FATF Grey List in February 2024 due to the increase in capital inflows and the government’s inability to extensively fight money laundering, terrorism and arms financing.

The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila has assured that the Presidency is working towards removing Nigeria from the FATF grey list before the May 2025 deadline.

According to the FATF, it had commenced monitoring the progress of Nigeria and other affected countries as they adhere to the stated rules. It added that since February 2023, Nigeria has made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and the Inter-Governmental Action Against Money Laundering In West Africa (GIABA) to resolve issues associated with ML and TF in the country.