By Miriam Humbe
The Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has charged Designated Non Financial Institutions Businesses and Professions, DNFBPs on compliance and cooperation with the Commission in order to combat money laundering and terrorism financing in the country.
Dele Oyewale, EFCC’s Head, Media & Publicity disclosed this in a statement signed on Thursday.
Olukoyede made the call recently in Port Harcourt, Rivers State during A One-day Anti-Money Laundering/ Combating Financing of Terrorism/Countering Proliferation Financing AML/CFT/CPF Workshop for DNFBPS on Compliance and Obligations themed: “Effective Implementation of AML/CFT/CPT Measures Among The DNFBP Sector in Nigeria”.
Speaking through the Director, Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML), Deputy Commander of the EFCC, DCE Harry Erin, he stressed that it was important for relevant stakeholders to do their part in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing but decried poor compliance and lack of due diligence by some DNFBPs in the areas of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in their business dealings with clients.
Erin pointed out that greater amounts of money being laundered are as a result of lack of due diligence and non compliance with enabling laws guiding the operations of DNFBPS.
He sued for stronger synergy between the EFCC and DNFBPs to bring money laundering and terrorist financing to its knees.
“If the DNFBP Sector in Nigeria works hand in hand with the EFCC, we would tackle the monster of money laundering in Nigeria”, he said.
The SCUML Director thereafter urged participants to protect the integrity of their professions by blocking every loophole available for money laundering by complying with the AML Act and other enabling laws.
The compliance, he said, will also crown the efforts of the Commission in ensuring Nigeria is delisted from the Financial Action Task Force, FATF’s grey list.
