Monrovia, Liberia, November 25, 2019: The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) selected Liberia to host a Regional Training Workshop on Investigative Reporting on Economic and Financial Crimes for Journalist from the November 26 – 28, 2019.

This training workshop, which targeted forty-five (45) Journal; ten (10) from
Liberia and thirty-five (35) from each West-African member states, was hosted in strategic alliance with the Financial Intelligence Unit of Liberia (FIU), was designed to equip Journalist with the investigative techniques to report money laundering activities and will comprise of several training modules including technical presentations, review of case studies and writing of short investigation report on a model case study.

Money Laundering has been a complex phenomenon generating serious
consequences on political, social and economic development of countries of the world. It facilitates crimes and corruption which are antithetical to sustainable development. In particular, Money Laundering impairs development of institutions (democratic, education, health, etc.). Unfortunately, developing countries are disproportionately at risk due to poor capacity to deal with the problem. The last twenty years have witnessed increased efforts and collaborations to address the issues of money laundering and other forms of organized crimes that plague the society. International initiatives in the form of AML/CFT frameworks have been designed and most countries and jurisdictions have subscribed to these measures. An effective AML/CFT framework reinforces a variety of good governance policies that help to sustain economic development.

GIABA is a specialized institution of ECOWAS as well as a FATF-Styled Regional body (FSRB) established by the Authority of Heads of States and Government of ECOWAS in 2000 with the mandate to protect the economies of member states from the laundering of the proceeds of crimes.