EU removes Ghana from money laundering blacklisted countries
In May 2020, the European Union blacklisted Ghana as one of four African countries that had been cited for money laundering.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog has announced that Ghana is no longer a part of the countries that have been blacklisted by the European Union over failure to fight money laundering.
In May 2020, the European Union blacklisted Ghana as one of four African countries that had been cited for money laundering. The other African countries at the time were Botswana, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe.
However, a notice served last Friday, June 25, 2021, by the FATF said it welcomes the progress Ghana is making towards improving its AML/CFT regime.
The FATF further added that Ghana has addressed the technical deficiencies that hindered its ability to meet the commitments in its action plan, relating to the strategic deficiencies that had been identified by the FATF in October 2018.
Following a meeting between President Akufo-Addo and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the European Union announced that it would be taking Ghana off the list of countries it had cited as notorious for money laundering and terrorism financing.
The statement by the FATF subsequently indicated that “Ghana is therefore no longer subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process. Ghana will continue to work with GIABA to improve further its AML/CFT regime.”
