Nigeria escapes money laundering rap
Government taken off key blacklist of suspect countries
Nigeria has been taken off a key blacklist of countries involved with money
laundering.
The government of the African country has been removed from a Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) black-list of countries deemed not cooperating with the
international community’s crackdown on money laundering.
FATF’s ruling plenary was persuaded by Nigeria setting up a financial
intelligence unit to detect money laundering and movements of terrorist finance,
while securing prosecutions and convictions from criminal investigations into
these offences.
In addition, FATF said: ‘Nigeria has taken steps at the highest levels to
fight corruption.’
Nigeria is thought to have made a lot of progress since the blatant asset
stripping and negligence of its 1990s dictatorships.
The decision leaves only one country on FATF’s blacklist: Myanmar, whose
military regime continues to be mired in allegations of links to drug traders.
Financial institutions have to take special care dealing with businesses and
governments from FATF blacklisted countries and sometimes avoid any commercial
relationships.