Senate to Set Up New Anti- Money Laundering, Counterterrorism Agency

A bill which seeks to establish Nigerian Financial Intelligence Centre to combat money laundering and terrorist activities scaled second reading in the Senate on November 21, 2013, Thursday.

Senator Victor Lar, (Plateau South), the Chairman of Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes, strongly supported the passage of the bill.

“Nigeria is on the Financial Action Task Force targeted list, a list of countries that are considered ‘unsafe or high-risk jurisdiction’ due to certain observed institutional and operational deficiencies,” Sen. Lar noted during debates on the bill.

Sen. Lar listed some observed operational and institutional deficiencies to include deficient anti-money laundering Act, weak anti-terrorism Act, absence of an independent financial intelligence unit, absence of mutual legal assistance Act, absence of Proceed of Crime/Asset recovery and management body and absence of Whistle Blowers Act.

Victor Ndoma-Egba, the Senate Leader, in his return noted that financial intelligence is a law enforcement strategy employed by governments the world over to gather information in relation to cash and currency transactions in financial system within and across national boundaries.

Sen. Ndoma-Egba said that such information gathering is necessary to understand the nature and capabilities of financial transactions as well as to predict their intentions and take pro-active steps to prevent negative consequences.

He noted that currently, the country has Financial Intelligence Unit domiciled within the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as an autonomous unit. The shortcoming of the unit as currently constituted and operated is that it is domiciled in the EFCC as an administrative unit with limited level of capacity and autonomy to effectively carry out its functions.

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