Stakeholders on Thursday advocated improved capacity for law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute money laundering and terrorism financing cases in Nigeria.

The participants at the dialogue on strengthening Nigeria’s anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism framework engagement on Nigeria’s FATF delisting, also demanded effective strategies that could lead to the removal of Nigeria from the Financial Action Task Force grey list.

The FATF greylisted Nigeria in February 2023, and the country again failed to scale a review carried out by the global financial intelligence agency at its plenary, in November of the same year.

The participants were drawn from the Ministry of Justice, Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the University of Warwick and the University of Lancaster.

The programme which was held in Abuja, was hosted by the African Centre for Governance, Assets Recovery and Sustainable Development in collaboration with the Global South Dialogue on Economic Crime, the University of Warwick, the University of Lancaster and the Economic and Social Research Council, among others.

An assistant professor at the University of Warwick Law School, Dr. Joy Malala, noted the greylisting of several African countries by the FATF and proposed that “a shared approach to mitigating the risk of listing needed to be documented.”

Malala stated, “So, part of our aim is to do a NEEDS assessment and try to understand the challenges that many of the government agencies face; whether it’s data management, whether it’s interagency collaboration, communication and what they do with that data as well.

‘’We are also interested in many of the judicial actors, trying to understand how the prosecution works, taking these cases forward to the courts, how the courts adjudicate them, and trying to see how police interact with Customs, interact with other agencies, to better understand the needs of Nigeria.

She explained that money laundering is not a nation-specific crime, emphasising its cross-border, transnational nature, adding that a better coalition would, in fact, limit and constrain how illicit finances flow.

‘’It would better constrain how money flows within these networks, these organised crime networks. So, we are hoping to expand it to other countries, but the focus of this project is strictly on Nigeria as a case study,” she clarified.

Also speaking, Dr Nkechi Azinge-Egbiri of the University of Lancaster said the participants at the dialogue who included stakeholders from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Directorate of State Services would rub minds and strategise against the challenges in combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

“We want to ask and find out what the challenges are, to benchmark their capacity, and to see how we can aid in strengthening Nigeria’s capacity to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, which is very crucial and would contribute to Nigeria’s ability to also attain SDG 16, which is about reducing illicit financial flows within the country, and outside the country,” she said.

The Executive Director of the African Centre for Governance, Asset Recovery and Sustainable Development, Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu, said the centre was collaborating with the Federal Government under the International Coordination Review Group, to ensure Nigeria’s delisting from the FATF grey list.

She listed the outstanding issues to include prosecution, investigation, intelligence gathering, and managing data related to terrorism financing cases.

The former NFIU director noted, “Well, today, we are essentially looking at how to improve our systems, whether we’re talking about investigation, prosecution, or in terms of gathering intelligence that will support the investigation.

‘’One of the challenges relates to the investigation of terrorism cases as opposed to any other crime, and also to make sure that when we do that, every law enforcement agency that is involved has the intelligence to do their work, has the capacity to then investigate and then prosecute.’’