Ghana To Be Removed From EU Money Laundering List by June 2021
Ghana is expected to be removed from the list of countries with high levels of deficiencies in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) regimes.
The exclusion of Ghana from the list is expected to be announced in June this year.
Background
The European Commission in May 2020 listed Ghana and 11 other countries as having lapses in the country’s AML and CFT regimes, thus posing significant threats to the European Union’s financial system
The inclusion of Ghana in the blacklist meant that financial transactions from Ghana into the EU and vice versa received extra scrutiny to ensure that they did not escape the “deficiencies” identified to the benefit of money launderers and terrorist financiers.
A similar action was taken on Ghana in 2019.
The Decision to Remove Ghana From the EU Money Laundering List
A statement signed and issued by the Director of Communications at the Office of the President, Mr. Eugene Arhin, said the European Commission made the decision to take Ghana off the list following a meeting with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in Brussels, Belgium.
According to the statement, at a meeting between President Akufo-Addo and the President of the European Council, His Excellency, Charles Michel, as well as at the European Commission, the European Union acknowledged the efforts Ghana has made in implementing the action plan of the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) in record time.
“The Commission, thus, congratulated Ghana for the reforms embarked on, as well as the sustainable, robust systems deployed towards being taken of the list,” it said.
It added that it is expected that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, will, in June 2021, announce that Ghana has been taken off its list of high risk, third-world countries with strategic deficiencies in Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Terrorism Financing.
