Ghana's Anti-Money Laundering Efforts Commended

Ghana has been commended for making strides in the fight against money laundering and organised crime.

The President of the Intergovernmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Dr Abdullahi Shehu, listed the passage of the Organised Crime Act, establishment of the Financial Intelligence Centre and the development of the national strategic framework against money laundering as some of the steps taken by Ghana to combat organised crime and money laundering.

He was speaking with journalists at the opening of the ninth Ministerial Meeting and 10th anniversary of GIABA in Abuja, Nigeria.

GIABA was established to develop means and strategies and assist member states of ECOWAS to protect their economies from misuse or abuse for the purposes of laundering the proceeds of crime.

The plenary meeting, attended by experts, representatives of member states, development partners and observers, was to strategise on how to sustain efforts at combating money laundering and terrorism financing in the sub-region.

A key element during the meeting was the consideration and approval of mutual evaluation reports of member states regarding their compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATC) 40plus9 recommendations.

Ghana’s Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, chaired the Council of Ministers meeting.

Dr Shehu said Ghana’s evaluation report this year showed a marked improvement over the previous year’s.

For instance, he said, the government had allocated a convenient office for the Financial Intelligence Centre and made funds available for its operations.

Besides, he said, the Financial Intelligence Centre had good leadership, which was taking stringent steps towards exposing and combating the incidence of organised crime and money laundering in the country, saying that “Ghana is moving on course”.

He urged Ghana to maintain the momentum in the fight against money laundering and organised crime and reassured the country of GIABA’s continuous technical assistance.

Mrs Mould-Iddrisu promised that Ghana would sustain efforts at combating organised crime and money laundering.

She said, for instance, that her outfit had developed the Extradition Bill which was before Cabinet.

She said her office had formulated a Trust Bill to regulate the activities of civil society organisations, while a code of conduct to oversee the work of civil servants was awaiting Cabinet approval.

The Whistle Blowers Act was also being amended to enable private and financial institutions to expose corrupt dealings in their respective organisations, Mrs Mould-Iddrisu added.