Africa Fights Back: South Africa and Nigeria Exit FATF Grey List in Landmark Anti-Corruption Victory
By Dippy Singh
South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique and Burkina Faso are removed from the list after bolstering their anti-financial crime regimes – while others including Cameroon and Kenya remain under the microscope.
The world’s leading standard-setting body for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has officially taken South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique and Burkina Faso off its grey list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.
To be removed from FATF monitoring, a jurisdiction must address all or nearly all the components of its action plan to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other threats to the global financial system.
The FATF announced its decision during its plenary held in Paris on Friday (24 October), while it also confirmed that a number of African countries remain on the grey list, comprising Kenya, Namibia, Cameroon, Algeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. Those on the list commit to working with the organisation to strengthen their domestic financial crime framework while under increased supervision.
South Africa and Nigeria were placed on the list in 2023, after Burkina Faso and Mozambique in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The four countries were noted for strengthening the effectiveness of their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) systems, which included measures such as increasing the diversity of suspicious transactions reporting; conducting training for all law enforcement agencies to enhance the gathering of evidence or seizure of proceeds of crime; demonstrating that authorities are pursuing confiscation as a policy objective; increasing financial intelligence sent to authorities; and demonstrating a sustained increase in investigations and prosecutions of serious and complex money laundering in line with relevant risks.
In a statement, the South Africa National Treasury said the country’s exit represents a “major policy and institutional achievement for the people of South Africa”, particularly following the “weakening of key law enforcement and other institutions during the state capture era”.
However, while its removal is an “important milestone and a demonstration of South Africa’s commitment to rebuilding the rule of law”, the Treasury added that it is only the start of a broader process to reinforce key institutions, improve enforcement and governance processes, and ensure that these improvements are sustainable. “To prevent being placed back on the grey list, it is important that systems of monitoring and enforcement work more efficiently and effectively, and that there are no gaps, by the time of [South Africa’s] next FATF Mutual Evaluation,” the statement added. The evaluation is expected to conclude in October 2027.
Nigeria President Bola Ahmed Tinubu welcomed the delisting, labelling the move as “a major milestone in Nigeria’s journey towards economic reform, institutional integrity and global credibility”.
The State House statement continued: “[When the FATF] placed Nigeria on the grey list, the message from the global community was clear: the nation needed more vigorous enforcement, better coordination and greater transparency. Rather than treat this as a setback, Nigeria viewed it as a call to action. Under President Tinubu’s strategic leadership and in line with the economic transformation agenda of his administration, Nigeria implemented far-reaching legal, institutional and operational reforms.”
In June, the FATF removed Tanzania and Mali from its grey list, while in October last year it revised its greylisting criteria to focus on developed countries and lessen the compliance burden on the least developed states.
Source: https://www.africanlawbusiness.com
