Two key member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Nigeria and Ghana have announced their preparedness to support the Liberia Financial Intelligence Unit (FIUL) to seek membership with Egmont Group.
Mr. Modibbo R. Hamman Tukur, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit made the disclosure recently when a delegation of Inter-Governmental Action Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) ended an advocacy visit to Liberia.
According to him, Egmont Group which provides a platform for the secure exchange of expertise and financial intelligence to combat money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) has the ability to greatly help Liberia to achieve its fight against money laundering and countering terrorist financing.
He mentioned that the Egmont Group with membership of 166 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) could add more value and visibility to Liberia Financial Intelligence Unit operations to help Liberia get on par with other countries or FIUs globally.
“Nigeria and Ghana are ready to show sisterly relationship and love to Liberia FIU, as Liberia prepares to undergo the second round of mutual evaluation by GIABA early next year,” he pointed out.
However, the Nigerian FIU boss also announced that the Federal Government of Nigeria is prepared to aid Liberia with technical support regarding training of Liberia FIU staff members to be more knowledgeable about the newest anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing software; which is very costly to enhance their daily operations.
Mr. Hamman Tukur further mentioned that Liberia FIU staff will be permitted to visit Nigeria for advanced training, adding that they will do their training implementation at FIU Liberia headquarters to assess and evaluate their skills about the usage of the software and other anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing techniques.
“Nigeria is ready to give sponsorship for the software and provide other technical assistance to Liberia FIU,” he noted.