As part of efforts to equip its officers and other stakeholders in the financial sector with skills to live up to its mandate, the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, SCUML, of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has began a 10-day training workshop for its staff.
EFCC is embarking on the training in conjunction with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN.
The training, which is holding at the EFCC’s Academy, Karu, Abuja, FCT is aimed at equipping the personnel with the latest skills in enforcement of anti-money laundering/combating financing of terrorism, globally, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Declaring the program open, Abdulkadir Musa, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment said all hands must be on deck to rout the twin menaces of money laundering and terrorist financing.
“Besides deterring investors from exploring the numerous investment potentials in Nigeria, money laundering and terrorist financing distorts well meaning macro-economic policy,” he laments, while adding that it also “undermines financial stability, sterilizes the workings of the market mechanism and curtails the benefits of democratic governance,” Musa said.
In his opening remark at the event, Emmanuel Aremo, EFCC Secretary said, money laundering presently constitute a major threat to the world owing to its negative effects on global economic systems.
Aremo said non-financial businesses and professional sectors are most susceptible for the illicit act to thrive.
“Despite recorded success in AML/CFT regime in Nigeria, studies have shown that Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions, DNFBP’s sector constitute a vulnerable area where money laundering occurs. The nature, structure and operational procedure of these businesses and professions make it an avenue for which potential and existing money launderers could use to perpetuate crimes with little or no trace,” Aremo said.
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