The
acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim
Magu on July 19, 2017 inaugurated a committee to reposition the Nigerian
Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU.
The
committee which has members drawn from law enforcement, financial and regulatory
agencies is chaired by Dr. Abdullahi Shehu, a former Director General of the
Inter-Governmental Action Against Money Laundering in West Africa, GIABA. Other
members of the committee are Mr. Chidi Chukwuka from the Nigeria Deposit
Insurance Corporation (NDIC); Mr. Bamanga Bello, Head of the Special Control
Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML); Hajia Jamila Yusuf of the Central Bank
of Nigeria; Mr. Udofia Akpan Obot, a
former deputy director, CBN , while Mrs Joke Liman of the EFCC is to serve as
secretary
Speaking at the inauguration, which is coming
on the heels of the recent suspension of the NFIU from membership of the Egmont
Group of Financial Intelligence Units, Magu charged the committee to take a holistic
look at the mandate and operations of the NFIU with a view to coming up with
proposals to reposition the agency for greater efficiency.
While
noting that members of the committee are persons with rich experience in Anti Money
Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism, Magu reminded them that
membership of the Egmont Group was critical to Nigeria's effort to tackle money
laundering, and monitoring of financial flows within and outside the country.
He charged
the Committee to among others, address the concern of the Egmont Group, by providing
the necessary frameworks needed "to coordinate the effective process of
amendment of section 1(2)(c) of the EFCC Act to expressly reflect NFIU as an
autonomous unit under EFCC so as to provide legal basis or clarity on its
operational independence from the EFCC.
"Make
recommendations with respect to the funding of the NFIU's operations.
“Develop
career path for the staff of the NFIU.
“Develop
protocol for the protection of information and confidentiality, specifically as
regards the status of STR information and information deriving from
international exchange.
“Develop
procedure for the processing of information held by the NFIU either deriving
from STR or from international exchange for legitimate purposes”.
Responding
on behalf of the members of the Committee, Dr Shehu expressed delight at the
opportunity given to them to serve the country. "We see this as a call to
service and we assure you that we will ensure that we carry out this task
judiciously in order to reposition the NFIU, and ensure that it is autonomous
as this will further strengthen the anti-corruption fight", he said.
He
assured that the committee will hit the ground running as members are familiar
with the issues in the anti money laundering architecture in Nigeria. Reflecting
on the nation’s efforts to tackle Money Laundering, Shehu said the world has
really not given the country credit for its pioneering efforts in tackling
money laundering in the African continent. He disclosed that Nigeria was the
first country to enact an anti- money laundering law in Africa and also the
first to set up a Financial Intelligence Unit, an agency that has mentored
other FIUs in the West Africa sub-region.
He
further commended Nigeria’s role in setting up and nurturing GIABA to global
reckoning. Shehu however acknowledged that there were challenges in the country’s
ant- money laundering framework which must be tackled for the country to fully
achieve the objective of fighting corruption and money laundering.
The Committee has one month to submit its report.
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