Ghana Blacklisted By FATF for Money Laundering

The chairman for the Finance committee and also member of parliament for New Juaben South Constituency, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah has revealed that, Ghana has been blacklisted from financial Action Task Force (FATF) since April 2009.

Presenting the  committee’s report for the second reading of  anti money laundering Bill, 2020 in which  the first report reading  was presented to parliament on 5th November, 2020, Mr Assibey cited that, in 2016 Ghana was subjected to round of anti money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism mutual evaluation exercise by Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA). 

According to the report, the evaluation exercise identified some strategic deficiencies in the anti money laundering regulatory framework which placed Ghana on the “Grey” list.

However, the minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu contributing to the report says there should be a political will in other to punish anybody who engages in money laundering.

According to him, in exercising diplomacy, he urge the Foreign affairs committee and the Finance committee in parliament to take keen interest in probing Ghana’s cedis and what accounted for Ghana being blacklisted among other  African countries.

The FATF on February 16, 2012, issued a public statement in which it identified Ghana as a high risk money laundering and terrorism financing jurisdiction and cautioned member states to take into account the risks associated with the deficiencies in the anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing regimes.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has removed Ghana from the list of high risk money laundering and terrorist financing countries after it enacted various legislations to criminalise money laundering and fight the crime. “Pursuant to Ghana’s progress in largely addressing its action plan agreed upon with FATF, Ghana has been removed from the FATF’s public statement and identified in this document,” Mr Samuel Thompson Essel, Chief Executive Officer, Financial Intelligence Centre, Ghana, told journalists in Accra quoting a statement from FAFT.

 Source: Philomena Kuntu Blankson – myghanamedia.com ( Parliament – reporter)