The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yemi Cardoso, has announced that the central bank is committed at the highest level to facilitate Nigeria’s withdrawal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). “gray list” an anti-money laundering watch list.

Cardoso revealed this during a briefing with journalists and stakeholders in Washington, United States, following meetings with World Bank officials.

The FATF added Nigeria to its gray list on February 24, 2024.

Cardoso stressed that delisting Nigeria was a key objective in the bank’s recent engagements.

“The team is focused on promoting progress by identifying and resolving any bottlenecks that hinder the flow of remittances through formal channels into Nigeria. I would like to emphasize that we are consulting at the highest level to remove Nigeria from the FATF gray list, a key topic of our recent engagement,” Cardoso said.

Commitment to increase remittances

Speaking further, the CBN Governor reiterated the bank’s commitment to increase remittances to $1 billion as soon as possible.

He explained that his team has engaged with major international money transfer operators (IMTOs) to increase inflows through formal channels.

Cardoso added that they also met with Nigerian diaspora communities to launch an accounts program and establish partnerships with Nigerian banks.

“In addition to our meetings with senior members of multilateral financial institutions, we had the opportunity to launch the Non-Resident Accounts Program and engage the diaspora communities in partnership with Nigerian banks.

“Our team had productive discussions with IMTO leadership as they collectively committed to increasing fund flows of up to $1 billion through formal channels to Nigeria.

“This goal is both ambitious and achievable and we are fully committed to mobilizing resources to strengthen the collaborative task force that I lead at the bank,” he said.

What you need to know

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) added Nigeria and South Africa to its gray list on February 24, 2024.

• Countries on the gray list face increased scrutiny and need to step up efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, according to the task force.
• The FATF explained that being placed on the gray list indicates a commitment on the part of the jurisdiction to address identified strategic deficiencies within agreed time frames.
• As an intergovernmental decision-making body, the FATF focuses on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
• Recently, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) announced that the FATF had approved Nigeria’s fourth progress report since it was placed under surveillance.

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