Ghana is no longer on the global list of high risk money laundering and terrorist financing countries, after it enacted various legislations to criminalise money laundering and fight the crime.
This was made known by global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday, June 25, 2021.
The country was removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) ‘grey list’ on Friday, after the global watchdog on money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) was satisfied that Ghana had adequately strengthened its regime against the two practices, in line with international requirements.
A statement issued by the FATF said it welcomes the significant progress by the country in improving its AML/CFT regime, explaining further that Ghana has strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime and addressed related technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in its action plan regarding the strategic deficiencies that the FATF identified in October 2018.
“Ghana is therefore no longer subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process. Ghana will continue to work with GIABA to improve further its AML/CFT regime,” it added.
Ghana among 22 countries blacklisted by EU over money-laundering breaches
The European Union in May 2020, cited Ghana as one of four African countries listed by the Union for money laundering breaches.
According to the EU, the issue puts the financial transactions of the said countries under greater scrutiny.
The other three African countries put on the list at the time were Botswana, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe.
The remaining eight are Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Myanmar.