By Charles Amponsah
The European Commission has announced its intention to remove Ghana from the list of money laundering and terrorist financing countries.
The announcement comes after meetings between President Akufo-Addo, President of the European Council, Charles Michel, as well as at the European Commission, during his two-day working visit to Brussels, Belgium.
The Presidency said the decision “follows efforts Ghana has made in implementing the action plan of the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG)”.
“At a meeting between President Akufo-Addo and the President of the European Council, His Excellency Charles Michel, as well as at the European Commission, the European Union acknowledged the efforts Ghana has made in implementing the action plan of the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) in record time,” the presidency said in a statement.
“The Commission, thus, congratulated Ghana for the reforms embarked on, as well as the sustainable, robust systems deployed towards being taken off the list.”
It further said that the global terror financing watchdog is expected to make the official announcement in June 2021.
“It is expected that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, will, in June 2021, announce that Ghana has been taken off its list of high risk, third-world countries with strategic deficiencies in Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Terrorism Financing.”
Illicit finance
The European Union on May 7, 2020, added 12 countries to the list of places with weak or deficiencies in Anti Money Laundering and Terrorism financing laws.
These include Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Panama, and Zimbabwe.
The inclusion of Ghana in the blacklist meant that financial transactions from Ghana into the EU and vice versa received extra scrutiny to ensure that they did not escape the “deficiencies” identified to the benefit of money launderers and terrorist financiers.
