Governments in the West African sub region have been urged to show strong political will in combating money laundering and financing of terrorism.
According to the acting Principal Officer in charge of Communication and Advocacy of Inter Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Mr Timothy Melaye, “world nations must unite and adopt measures to dismantle syndicates engaged in money laundering and terrorist financing”.
He made the call at the just-ended three-day training workshop on investigative journalism on economic and financial crimes in Abuja, Nigeria last Friday.
It was aimed at building a strong alliance with the media in a concerted manner for effective dissemination of Anti Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).
It also sought to interact with the media on money laundering and financial terrorism.
Organised by GIABA, the training brought together 31 journalists from Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),thus Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, the Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Liberia, Guinea Bissau and Benin.
Mr Melaye said money laundering was a complex phenomenon with serious repercussion on the political, social and economic development of countries around the world thus facilitates crimes and corruption which affect sustainable development.
He said GIABA, a specialised institution of ECOWAS, was set up in 2000 by the Authority of Heads of States and Government with the mandate to protect the economies of member states against the laundering of the proceeds of crime.
Mr Melaye stressed the need to train stakeholders including journalists to raise awareness to the public on the consequence of money laundering and terrorists financing on the socio-economic development of states.
He called for collaboration between member states to address ML/CFT in the sub region.
Mr Melaye urged participants to apply the knowledge acquired to address ML/ CFT.
An Associate Professor of Mass Communication at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Dr Bisi Olawuyi, in his presentation on the topic “Investigating a fictitious case of economic and financial crime” urged journalists not to use their platform for witch haunting but be fair in their reportage and expose wrongdoing.
He called on the participants to work as a team, be professional, discipline and develop good research skills.
Dr Oluwuyi stressed the need for collaboration between organisations and the media in its change agenda in addressing ML/CFT.
The Immediate Past Director of Evaluation and Compliance of GIABA, Dr Buno Nduka, in a presentation on the topic “Introduction to AML/CFT standards” said effects of AML/CFT includes weakening of financial institutions, loss of revenue to government, heightened insecurity, affects negatively the country’s image at international level and increase crimes and corruption.
He said AML/CFT framework would protect the integrity of financial system, promote good governance and deny criminals the usage of crime proceeds
FROM ANITA NYARKO-YIRENKYI, ABUJA
