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Nigeria has moved up by three additional grade in her anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing quest, it emerged over the weekend.

Statutorily, as it stands today, the country is compliant (C) or largely compliant (LC) in 37 out of the 40 recommendations, leaving it with three to scale.

Ratification of Nigeria’s current status came to fore last week at a meeting of Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) technical commission which took place between 17th – 23rd November, 2024 in Freetown, the Republic of Sierra Leone.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) – Hafsat Abubakar Bakari who doubles as Nigeria’s National Correspondent (NC) for the ECOWAS (GIABA) led Nigeria’s delegation.

Include in the delegation team are representatives from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Ministry of Justice (FMOJ), Corporate Affairs Commission and Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA).

According to a brief statement issued by NFIU, Nigeria’s third follow up report was discussed at plenary which focused on its progress in addressing technical compliance deficiencies identified in its 2021 AML/CFT mutual evaluation.

“The follow-up report highlighted Nigeria’s enhanced measures in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.

The Plenary recognized the remarkable improvement in Nigeria’s legal and regulatory framework and upgraded five (5) key recommendations from partially compliant to largely compliant”.

The report highlights recommended upgrade to include, recommendation 23 on other measures relevant to designated non-financial businesses and professionals, recommendation 24 which borders on transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons; recommendation 25 on transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements, recommendation 28 on regulation and supervision of DNFBPs and recommendation 32 which deals on cash couriers.

Nigeria secured its inclusion in the GIABA enhanced follow-up process in 2021 when it submitted 3 reports seeking re-rating recommendations in line with with non-compliant/partially compliant rating.

The member states of GIABA and international partners including the FATF were said to have commended Nigeria on these efforts.

It’s believed the achievement will further strengthen the country’s mechanism in combatting money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing and other predicate offences.