FINANCE: Nigeria Meets Money Laundering Deadline

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Dec 16 2002 (IPS) - The government of Nigeria on Monday signed the Money Laundering Act to meet the Dec 16 deadline, set by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the investigative arm of the OECD, threatened to impose sanctions on Nigeria if Abuja, the administrative capital of the West African country, failed to pass laws to curb money laundering by Dec 16.

President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday signed three bills and sent the copies to the Financial Action Task Force in Paris.

Nigeria is on the FATF’s blacklist of money-laundering countries and is rated as the second most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International. The OECD represents the interests of the 30 wealthiest nations in the world.

The three bills signed by Obasanjo comprises the Money Laundering Act 2002, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Bill 2002 and Banks and Other Financial Institutions Bill 2002, which all aim to fight financial crime.

The Nigerian Senate amended section 2 (a) (ii) of the bill by increasing the amount for disclosure of illegal financial transaction from one million Naira (about 10,000 U.S. dollars) to five million Naira (50,000 U.S. dollars) for individuals. It also increased the amount for corporate bodies from five million (about 50,000 U.S. dollars) to 10 million Naira (about 100,000 U.S. dollars).

Following the blacklisting of Nigeria – among 17 countries for financial crimes – by the Financial Action Task Force, the government set up a joint task force ‘’the National Committee on Financial Crime”, headed by the Inspector General of Police, to fight all aspects of financial crimes.

The most common financial crime in Nigeria is the ‘’advance fee fraud”, popularly known as 419, after a section of the Nigerian criminal code which deals with fraudsters who send letters to unsuspecting victims all over the world.

Ten of the countries mentioned by the organisation have since been de-listed.

At a news briefing in Abuja mid this year, Shamsudeen Usman, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), urged Nigerians to stand up and fight as a nation against financial and economic crimes which he said were tarnishing the reputation of the nation.

‘’It is unfortunate that out of the seven (countries) that are still left, virtually all the six (countries) have made substantial progress at curbing the menace of financial crimes in their society. We really need to stand up ourselves and do something about it. Standing up is not just complaining and saying that we are being victimised by other people,” said Usman.

‘’Victimisation might be a part of it, but the most important thing is that we must acknowledge that a lot of things are wrong in our society and we have to stand up and do something about it before we can get it rectified,” he said.

As part of efforts to check money laundering, the CBN last year came out with a policy to ensure financial institutions abide strictly by record keeping rules. This policy formed the main trust of the new laws.

Commenting on the signing of the bill, Femi Falana, an outspoken Lagos-based Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, said the delay in enacting the law on money laundering and financial crime was very embarrassing.

‘’The National Assembly has shown once again that it is not responsive to the need of society because the law has to be passed because an ultimatum was issued to a sovereign state like Nigeria. It is very embarrassing,” he said.

‘’It is hoped that now that the bill has been passed and signed, the ruling class will have the will to enforce it. It is one thing to sign a law, and it is another to enforce it especially in Nigeria. We have the anti-corruption act, but there have been problems implementing and enforcing it,” Falana told IPS in Lagos on Monday.

He urged those threatening to impose sanctions on Nigeria to hold on. ‘’ They should wait and see whether or not the government will implement or enforce the law,” he said.

Diplomatic sources in Nigeria said the signing of the bill into law does not automatically take Nigeria off the hooks. ‘’Not until, the provisions of the law are seen to have been implemented and enforced, the issue of de-listing the country cannot come up,” one diplomat told IPS from Abuja on Monday.