Regional forum on anti-money laundering opens - The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) Tuesday began a three-day regional forum on Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements for non-bank regulators and supervisors at Coco Ocean Resort and Spa, in Bilijo. The objective of the seminar is to sensitise supervisors and regulators of non-bank financial institutions on AML/CFT, acquaint participants in promoting the implementation of AML/CFT compliance culture required for efficient and sound financial system, and promote networking among operators in the region that would facilitate information sharing and dissemination on AML/CFT issues.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mod Secka, the permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs said that the Ecowas Authority and Heads of States realised that they are living in a highly globalised world, thus, the problems of the world is their problem since West Africa is not isolated from the rest of the world. He added that this became more apparent after September 9th, 2011 when terrorism and the financing of it became much more pronounced.

He acknowledged that significant progress has been chronicled including the introduction of upgrading the AML laws in most member states, the establishment of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) in most members states, the conduct and the publication of several typologies and other research studies over the period, the full implementation of HQs agreements with the host country, the conduct of mutual evaluations for almost every members state, training and capacity building exercises conducted on an ongoing basis for every country and most target audiences, and increased cooperation with both regional and international partners, amongst other things.

For his part, Dr. Abdullahi Shehu, director-general of GIABA explained that the organisation operates on one hand as a specialised Ecowas institution, and on the other hand as an FATF-Style regional body (FRSB). He disclosed that apart from performing the core functions of a FRSB including mutual evaluations and typologies exercises, GIABA also undertakes technical assistance mandated to member States.

He said: "Our outreach has gone beyond the traditional beneficiary institutions or agencies to include relevant public and private sectors institutions, such as the financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions, legislatures and the mass media.

The past five years have witnessed significant increase in the number of beneficiaries of our technical assistance, including capacity building programmes." The GIABA DG further disclosed that some financial institutions have collapsed as a result of money laundering activities associated with their operations.

He then made it clear that in the global fight against money laundering and terrorism, financing institutions become the first line of defence and are now under increasing pressure to demonstrate genuine commitment to implement AML/CFT measures.

Basirou Njie, the 1st deputy governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) who spoke on the challenges of regulating designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs)- The Gambia perspective, explained that money laundering is simply a process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources.

He admitted that there are huge challenges to regulating DNFBPs in The Gambia, revealing that the challenges include weak regulation, poor recordkeeping and the fact that cash is the predominant payment instrument. He added that the challenges are however, not insurmountable.

Aji Fatou Faal

The Daily Observer/06/10/2011