Nigerian President Muhammadu has asked the House of Representatives to consider the Money Laundering Prohibition Bill 2022 and Terrorism Prohibition Bill 2022 as measures to strengthen the fight against financial crimes in the country.
In a communication read by the Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris-Wase, who presided over the plenary, President Buhari said the two bills were to amend the deficiencies noted in the anti-money laundering bills to conform with the global practices.
“Unless these deficiencies are address promptly by the National Assembly in order to bring legal regime in conformity with the Financial Action Task Force recommendations, Nigeria will face the risk of negative public statement blacklisting the country by the Financial Action Task Force and this will lead to some negative consequences to our rapidly growing economy,” the communique read.
Recent evaluation by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundry in West Africa, pointed out deficiencies in the Nigerian Anti-Money Laundering Act by including the financing of the terrorism regime into the Act.
The proposal by the Executive Arm was to amend the Anti Laundering Act by separating the Terrorism aspect from the Act.
Lateefah Ibrahim
