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http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/business/44013-money-laundering-nigeria-gets-12-month-deadline.html

Nigeria has a year to  tackle worst its money laundering cases, or face sanctions, the Director-General, Inter-Governmental Action against Money Laundering (GIABA), Dr Abdullahi Shehu, has warned.

Speaking to The Nation, Shehu said Nigeria is still engaged in 21 predicate offences that assist the growth of money laundering, adding that this has put the country in a very precarious situation.

He listed the offences to include  human trafficking, drugs trafficking, currency trafficking, proceeds from advance fee fraud, oil bunkering, bribery, embezzlement of public funds, investment of ill-gotten wealth on real estates, cybercrimes, kidnapping, smuggling, importation of contrabands and wire transfers to offshore branches. 

He said: “After our mutual evaluation programmes recently, we discovered that Nigeria is yet tackle the 21 predicate offences outlined in the Financial Action Task Force (FAST) plans. Failure to tackle one or two of the predicate offences means that the country is battling with serious cases of money laundering. 

“One of the offences must not be left out, if a country wants to free itself from money laundering.It is easier to get into the list of countries with worst cases of money laundering, if one is not doing the right thing. However, it is difficult to get out of it. For this reason, Nigeria would need at a least a year of rigorous policy formulation and implementation before it can come out of the danger zone.”

He said the country was blacklisted a few years ago, noting that it has put in place some checks.  He said the measures yielded little results, as the country still battles money laundering.

 “Though Nigeria has moved from her blacklisted position, the country is yet to get there. Its still facing challenges in the areas of addressing predicate offences that lead to money laundering. Based on this, the country is still in a threatening spot. Nigeria needs a minimum of 12 months to tackle these issues,  before  its name can be removed from the lists of countries with worst money laundering abuses,” he added.