Considerable efforts to deal with money
laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) in West Africa at the national,
regional and the international levels, have been inhibited by several
challenges, according to the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money
Laundering (GIABA).
These challenges include: legal and
constitutional challenges; lack of proper autonomy of some regulatory and
enforcement institutions, along with budgetary constraint; equipment and
logistics problem; and absence of robust national ML/TF strategies.
It said where national AM/TF strategies
exist, they are yet to be approved or implemented. The sub region is also
challenged by non functional inter-ministerial committees to coordinate efforts
at the national level and ensure synergy; and weak strategic and operational
cooperation at the regional and international levels.
In its latest report, GIABA said the
major predicate crimes that generate funds for laundering in the West Africa as
reported by the authorities across the region are corruption, fraud
(general/advance fee/tax /bank), abuse of trust using forged documents, drug
trafficking; smuggling of precious metals/stones; capital market-related crimes
and cyber crimes.
However, in the face of these
challenges, GIABA said it has redirected its attention to making member States
more responsive in programme ownership with regard to design, planning and
implementation.
In the end, competencies need to be
developed at the three levels: operational, tactical and strategic, it said but
warn that a clear political direction that creates a favorable atmosphere for
dealing with ML/TF must be provided for any meaningful action to be carried out
by operational stakeholders.
Money
laundering sectors
“The sector that features as most used
for ML is real estate, followed by the misuse of banks and the movement of cash
across borders,” said GIABA, a financial action task force-styled regional body
(FASRB). “Others are the abuse of designated non-financial businesses and
professions (DNFBPs), misuse of the insurance and microfinance sectors, the
stocks and securities market, casinos and other gambling or games sectors.”
The GIABA 2011 Report noted that the
facilitating factors are the vulnerabilities of the States rather than the size
of the threats.
These include ‘low capacity of competent
authorities’, ‘inadequate supervision’, inadequate political commitment’ and
‘weak enforcement’, it said.
Terrorism
Regard terrorism and terrorism
financing, in 2011, the sub-region has had to content with a number of
challenges, including the “ubiquitous presence of al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM), the fallouts of the Libyan conflict in terms of the flow of
weapons, fighters, and possibly cross-border movement of sizeable returnee mercenaries
who have considerable fighting experience.”
GIABA lamented that the “Boko Haram”
phenomenon in Nigeria has been a baffling menace, particularly with the
increasing sophistication of their attacks and the growing confidence and ease
with which such attacks were conducted.
ML/TF compliance remains very much a
work in progress in the sub-regional economic bloc of the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS).
“…and the effort reported below and the
gap identified should been seen in this context,” the bloc’s anti-money
laundering agency said.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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