At its October Plenary Meeting held in Paris, France, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global body that sets standards for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT), acknowledged significant progress by Nigeria. This recognition followed FATF’s approval of Nigeria’s fourth Progress Report since its addition to the monitoring list, also known as the “grey list,” in February 2023.
The report praised Nigeria’s strengthened systems for international cooperation on critical issues, including asset recovery, enhanced national coordination to combat terrorism, and new measures to prevent misuse of the non-profit sector for terrorist financing. Since joining the grey list, Nigeria has diligently worked on implementing an Action Plan to address issues outlined in its 2021 AML/CFT Mutual Evaluation Report.
Mrs. Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, attended the meeting in Paris, where she stated: “Through the combined efforts of all public and private stakeholders working to secure Nigeria’s financial system, we have completed nearly half of our Action Plan to exit the grey list.” Mrs. Bakari further emphasized her confidence that, with continued effort under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and the support of the Federal Executive Council and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on AML/CFT, Nigeria would complete all outstanding requirements before the May 2025 deadline.
She expressed her gratitude to all stakeholders, including the Attorney-General of the Federation and leaders across agencies who contributed to this progress, encouraging them to sustain their efforts as Nigeria aims to exit the grey list.
The October Plenary also led to updates on the grey list: following its successful Action Plan, Senegal was delisted, while Algeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, and Lebanon were added to the monitoring list.
