Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, says, the removal of Ghana from the global list of high-risk money laundering and terrorist financing countries has positioned the country for a stronger recovery in the coming months.
According to The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the initiative set up to tackle money laundering globally, grey lists a country which it considers as a safe haven for terror funding and money laundering, as a warning to the country to tackle the threat.
In order for a country to be delisted, it must show a strong commitment to addressing the threat. Ghana was put on FATF’s list in October 2018 after identifying the deficiencies in the country.
On 7th May 2020, the European Commission named Ghana as one of four African countries listed by the European Union for money laundering breaches and terror financing trepidations. Since then, all financial transactions in and out of Ghana were under greater analysis.
On Friday, June 25, the Financial Action Task Force announced Ghana’s deletion from the global list. This was after FATF was satisfied that Ghana had sufficiently reinforced its regime against money laundering and terrorist financing, in line with international requirements.
Ken Ofori-Atta, speaking to the media in Accra articulated confidence in the country’s future development now that the country is no more on the list.
“The international community has renewed its confidence in Ghana’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime. This is great relief for the country, considering the economic consequences suffered by the country while on the list. This will boost confidence in the integrity of our financial environment and also boost foreign direct investment.”
A former Deputy Finance Minister, who now doubles as the Chairman of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Kwaku Kwarteng, further enlightened that Ghana has automatically been removed from the European Union’s list too.
He said, “The EU itself communicated to us publicly that they had no issues with Ghana’s anti-money laundering regime. The only reason the EU listed us was because FATF listed us. So once we are off the FATF list, automatically, we get off the EU’s list as well.”
Richmond Mortty Bediako
