President Muhammadu Buhari has transmitted the Money Laundering Bill and Terrorism Prevention Bill to the Senate for expeditious consideration and passage. Both bills were accompanied by a letter dated 12 April 2022 and read by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan at the start of the plenary on Thursday.
According to the letter, the President said the request for the passage of both bills was in accordance with the provisions of Section 58 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The letter reads, “During the recent Mutual Evaluation carried out by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, there were observed deficiencies in Nigeria’s Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism regime (AML/CFT).
“Following the evaluation, the Ministry of Justice and other relevant stakeholders reviewed said deficiencies and drafted the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Bill, 2022, and Terrorism (Prevention) Bill, 2022.
“Unless these deficiencies are addressed promptly by the National Assembly, in order to bring our legal regime in conformity with the Financial Action Task Force recommendations, Nigeria will face the risk of a negative public statement blacklisting the country by FATF and this will lead to some negative consequences to our rapidly growing economy.
“In light of the above, the Federal Ministry of Justice reviewed the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Bill and Terrorism (Prevention) Bill currently pending before the National Assembly and have come up with the revised versions of the Bills, incorporating the resolutions to the deficiencies pointed out in the Mutual Evaluation Report, thereby bringing Nigeria’s AML/CFT legal regime in conformity with the FATF recommendations.”