The Presidency has pledged to take real steps to make sure Nigeria is removed from the global Financial Action Task Force, FATF, grey list before the May 2025 deadline.
The Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinibu, Femi Gbajabiamila, made this disclosure during a fact-finding visit to the office of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, in Abuja.
Reacting to a plea from the Director and Chief Executive Officer of NFIU, Hafsat Bakari, who asked for high-level intervention to meet the FATF action plan implementation deadline, Gbajabiamila vowed that the federal government’ is keen to tackle the deficiencies that made Nigeria to be listed
FATF is an autonomous intergovernmental organisation that promotes policies to protect the global financial system by evaluating jurisdictions based on their Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation, AML/CFT/P standards.
Gbajabiamila, while acknowledging the progress made by NFIU, which has implemented 30 per cent of the action plan to confront identified deficiencies, stressed the need for accelerated efforts to complete the remaining tasks.
“I am a firm believer that no matter how much you achieve, one thing can destroy everything you have achieved. One rotten egg can spoil the whole basket.
“We have nine months left to exit the Grey List, and even being on that list is bad enough—that is not what we want for our country.
”Therefore, we will do everything we need to do because May 2025 is around the corner. You must furnish us with the information and the boxes that we need to tick. We do not want a fire brigade approach because May is around the corner; this is a high priority,” he said.
