The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) says Nigeria is set to exit the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list in early next year.
A statement by the strategic communications office of the NFIU signed by Sani Tukur said FATF had approved Nigeria’s Third Progress Report since the country was added to the list of jurisdictions under monitoring (the grey list) in February 2023.
The approval was given at the FATF June 2024 plenary meeting hosted by Singapore.
“The plenary approved a further two upgrades in this round, and Nigeria has now completed 30 per cent of the action plan developed as part of the listing process. The country is on track to exit the grey list in early 2025,” the statement stated.
The statement released yesterday further said during the meeting, the chief executive officer of the NFIU, who is also the current chairperson of the technical commission of the Intergovernmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to fully implement the action plan and updated the plenary on GIABA’s continued progress to strengthen its technical capacity.
The Nigerian delegation to the plenary also included the executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the director of the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML) and the Chief of Staff to the CEO of the NFIU.