Nigerian fraud-law enforcers fire warning shot at gambling sector | ALB Article

Nigeria’s financial crimes agency warns gambling companies to tighten their anti-money laundering p…

Nigeria’s financial crimes agency warns gambling companies to tighten their anti-money laundering policies as country strives to exit FATF greylist.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has cautioned the Nigerian casino and gaming market to comply with anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing rules amid the country’s ongoing compliance failings.

Speaking at a due diligence workshop in Lagos on 13 June, Michael Wetkas, acting Lagos zonal director at the EFCC, stressed that, while he recognised the gambling industry’s substantial contributions to Nigeria’s economic development, the sector must ensure its operations align with the law.

“Our goal is to support Nigeria’s efforts to exit the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list. A key area of focus is enhancing ‘Know Your Customer’ practices, which will help prevent politically exposed persons from using your platforms for money laundering and embezzlement.”

Nigeria was placed on the FATF greylist along with South Africa in February 2023.

A greylisted country is one which has agreed to coordinate with the Task Force to address “strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing” and is “committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes”, according to the FATF.

Removal from the greylist is contingent on the state satisfying the conditions laid out by the FATF to tackle gaps in its anti-financial crime framework.

While Nigeria’s latest FATF progress report, published in January 2024, reveals it is making “significant progress in addressing [its] technical compliance deficiencies”, the nation still lingers on the list.

Pascal Samu, acting deputy director at the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML), a division of the EFCC, said: “This event must be seen as part of the continued partnership between SCUML and stakeholders in the gaming industry towards the development of an effective, sustainable and mutually beneficial anti-money laundering and counter terrorism supervision of the sector in Nigeria.”

Samu urged the gaming sector to pay particular attention to the identification and filing of suspicious transaction reports, beneficial ownership verification and the implementation of targeted financial sanctions.

“This will strengthen your compliance and build a common formidable response against terrorist financiers and other criminal elements seeking to abuse the sector,” Samu stated.

Kenya and Namibia were added to the FATF greylist in February this year amid concerns centred on money laundering and the financing of terrorism.