WINDHOEK, July 3 — Namibia and Angola’s financial intelligence units have formally strengthened their cooperation on combating money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and proliferation financing.
Bryan Eiseb, director of the Financial Intelligence Center of Namibia, said Tuesday that the cooperation was finalized through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on the sidelines of the third Meeting of the Southern African Development Community Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Committee.
“The MoU focuses on bilateral capacity building initiatives to harmonize financial intelligence analysis and investigative techniques,” Eiseb said.
He added that under the MoU, the two institutions will now be able to leverage the expertise gained in efforts to curb money laundering and illicit financial flows as well as the recovery of proceeds of money laundering in the two countries.
Namibia and Angola are currently included on the European Commission’s updated list of high-risk jurisdictions for financial crime monitoring.
Also included on the list are Algeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Monaco, Nepal, and Venezuela.
Namibia‘s inclusion on the high-risk list follows the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s February 2024 Plenary Meeting, during which Namibia was placed on the FATF’s “grey list” due to identified strategic deficiencies.
The FATF is an intergovernmental body that sets international standards to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. (Xinhua)
