The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), is seeking the support of Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs), in achieving sustainable results in Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) efforts in the region.
To ensure this, GIABA in collaboration with Ghana’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), is hosting a two-day national sensitisation seminar in Accra for religious leaders and institutions, to raise their awareness levels on the role of the AML/CFT framework, especially GIABA’s mandate.
The seminar will also agree on actionable points to promote peaceful co-existence, and the efforts being made by GIABA and its partners to address Money Laundering (ML), Terrorism Financing (TF) and Proliferation Financing (PF) in Ghana and across West Africa.
Participants, including revered leaders from both the Christian and Islamic faith, would discuss topics including the “Implementation of AML/CFT measures in Ghana, the journey so far: issues and challenges; Religious bodies as persuasive and influential anti-corruption institutions; and Combating the abuse of religious organisations for ML/TF/ PF in Ghana.”
There would also be sessions on “Identification of ML/TF risks and vulnerabilities associated with religious organisations, as well as promoting tolerance and preventing violent extremism.”
Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, Ghana’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, represented by Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the Director of Public Prosecution, at the opening of the seminar, appreciated GIABA for its unwavering leadership and sustained partnership in strengthening the AM/CFT Framework of member States.
He said hosting the seminar underscored both Ghana’s commitment and GIABA’s trust in the nation as a strategic partner in the fight against ML/TF and other forms of financial crime.
Dr Ayine spoke about the increasingly complex financial crimes presently plaguing the world, which transcended borders, sectors and even faith communities, with evidence showing that terrorist financiers and criminal networks now sought to exploit charitable and religious institutions, which were organisations funded on trust, compassion, and service, using them as channels to disguise or transfer illicit funds.
He said although FBOs and institutions were sacred spaces meant to promote peace, compassion and righteousness, because of their community-oriented nature and high-level of public trust they command, they may inadvertently be used to facilitate crimes when safeguards were weak or absent.
The Attorney General said the seminar was crucial to empower religious leaders with the knowledge and tools to identify, prevent and report suspicious transactions, and establish internal systems that protected their congregations and institutions from being misused for criminal purposes.
“As a member of GIABA, Ghana remains deeply committed to implementing international standards on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism,” he said.
He cited various legislations including Anti-Money Laundering Act 2020, (Act 1044); Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Act, 2014 (Act 875); Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act, 2020 (Act 1015), stressing that Ghana had built a robust architecture to enhance financial integrity and support international cooperation.
The FIC continued to play a pivotal role, while the Ministry of Justice and other key stakeholders were strengthening prosecution and asset recovery mechanisms to ensure that the proceeds of crime were effectively traced and confiscated, he said.
“However, as we all know, the most sophisticated legislation will remain ineffective if citizens, communities, and especially faith-based institutions are not aware of their role in its enforcement,” he said.
Dr Ayine underscored the unique and powerful position that religious leaders occupied in society, where they shaped public conscience, guided moral behavior, and influenced millions of people through their teachings and examples.
“Your leadership is indispensable in promoting transparency, integrity, and accountability within institutions, and by instituting strong governance measures, such as proper bookkeeping, internal audits, verification of donors, and prudent financial oversight, religious organisations can become true examples of ethical stewardship,” he added.
He urged participants to carry forward the lessons of the seminar into their daily practices, making their respective institutions “bulwarks of integrity, not loopholes for exploitations.”
Mr Timothy Melaye, the Acting Principal Officer, (Communication and Advocacy) GIABA, representing Mr Edwin W. Harris Jnr. the Director-General, at the opening ceremony, said the fight against ML/TF, was the collective responsibility of all stakeholders, to protect their economies and financial systems from the laundering of proceeds of crime.
He said GIABA recognised the valuable contribution of religious leaders, and their institutions held tremendous sway amongst their followers.
He gave a brief background of GIABA, saying since its establishment by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of States and Government in 2000, as a specialised ECOWAS institution it had grown to become like a Financial Action Task Force (FATF-styled) Regional Body, also termed as (FSRB) for West Africa.
It had worked to protect the economies of member States from the laundering of proceeds of crime, combating terrorism financing, and ensuring countries complied with acceptable international standards on AML and CFT.
Mr Melaye explained that as an FSRB, GIABA undertook mutual evaluations, a peer review mechanism for assessing the level of technical compliance and effectiveness of member States’ AML/CFT systems with international standards.
It conducts valuable research to identify the various trends and methods used by perpetrators of illicit crime, so they could strengthen preventive and enforcement efforts, among others.
He said GIABA had assisted member States in establishing relevant AML/CFT stakeholder institutions, including Financial Intelligence Units, provided capacity building programmes, technical assistance to various institutions, sustained partnership with the international community, and far-reaching advocacy and sensitisation events to a wide range of stakeholders including state actors.
Mr Melaye cited the worrying increase in the perpetration of illicit income-generating crimes, like corruption, kidnapping, human and drug trafficking, as well as violent extremism important and it was important to engage and utilise the tremendous influence of religious leaders to address some of the ills ravaging society.
“Thus, this programme is a clarion call on all of us to play our roles in ensuring a peaceful, secure and economically viable nation and religion at large, through the instrumentality of religion,” he said.
He said in promoting peaceful coexistence, the voices of religious leaders must be strongly heard against those social ills, saying “they must not only be heard but must be seen to lead the way by action and exemplary lifestyles.
The seminar was expected to be a springboard for a renewed commitment of all religious and opinion leaders, to affirm their resolve in raising awareness and shaping the morals of their congregations and followers through the force of moral persuasive messages, he said.
Mr Kofi Boakye, representing the FIC, described ML as the act of cleaning ‘dirty money’ to make it clean, and religious institution, had become very vulnerable to this, as perpetrators were now channeling their illicit funds into churches, mosques and related institutions as unsolicited loans, tithes and offerings.
He said people were now using various channels, and FBOs have been found to be an avenue for these people to clean their ‘dirty money’, some through the giving of tithes, offerings, and loans among others.
Mr Boakye urged FBOs to watch out for red flags, by doing some background checks on people to know their sources of wealth or report to the FIC for further investigations.
Source: GNA
Source: ghanabusinessnews.com
