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Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs Farida Waziri, has said that the banking sector will soon come under the searchlight of the commission in its renewed bid to rid the nation of corruption.
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs Farida Waziri, has said that the banking sector will soon come under the searchlight of the commission in its renewed bid to rid the nation of corruption. This resolve she pointed out was to check unprofessional conducts of some banks in cases of money laundering.
'Since we sanitized the banks, I thought that we have had respite but what is going on through the banks is so bad. Even, some banks use the stock exchange to perpetrate so much corrupt deals, corrupting the same system that made them who they are," she stated while responding to remarks by the Director General of the Inter Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Dr. Abdullahi Shehu, who paid her a courtesy visit in Abuja on Tuesday.
Speaking earlier, Dr. Shehu had expressed his organization's indebtedness to Nigeria, especially to the EFCC for its support.
'EFCC has been my pillar of support and I do hope that this support will continue. My coming to EFCC is like coming back home," Shehu stated.
He disclosed that GIABA is styled after the Financial Action Task Force and covers the 15 states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Its major mandate, he said, was to serve as regional alliance to prevent and control money laundering in collaboration with other stakeholders.
Shehu said GIABA has conducted several mutual evaluations of the workings of member states and expressed satisfaction on the findings.
He particularly praised Nigeria, which he said had through NFIU and EFCC, done a great work.
'We feel encouraged by the work of EFCC because it is an institution that serves as a model in the region and we hope that you will be able to promote the work of EFCC to other countries," he said.
He drew the attention of EFCC chairman on the need for Nigeria to write the follow-up report based on her observations on the mutual evaluation conducted on Nigeria last year, which was meant to determine the level of compliance, by the country on the AML/CTF regime.
While lamenting problems associated with cash based economy like Nigeria's, Shehu said there was need to address and implement the Typologies Report on Cash Transactions already adopted by ECOWAS council of ministers. This he said would help other countries emulate Nigeria, which is the only country in the region that prohibits cash transactions on certain threshold. Speaking further on his plan for the country, the GIABA chief said his organization was willing to render any technical assistance to EFCC.