Bank of Ghana organizes money laundering workshop for rural banks and microfinance institutions

The Bank of Ghana has organized a two-day workshop for rural banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to sensitize them on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Fighting (AML/CFT) activities, as part of efforts to ensure a clean financial sector.

Most rural banks and MFIs, according to Head of Financial Stability Department of Bank of Ghana, Dr. Joseph France, lack the technical and technological know-how to implement robust systems to fight the crime, hence, the training.

He said the training is aimed at equipping these institutions with the needed skills on how to report on suspected money laundering activities and how to combat them. He further gave insight on how participants will benefit from the training.

“As you may be aware the workshop will also facilitate the registering of institutions on the GoAML platform. This will go a long way to improve reporting to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) by institutions in the sector and enhance collaboration between competent authorities.

The GOAML application is a fully integrated software solution developed specifically for use by Financial Intelligence Units (FIU’s) by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Participants will be taken through one of the key aspects of the Continuous Due Diligence (CDD) process of Transaction Monitoring (TM). Effective Transaction Monitoring will flag and report transactions that are unusual and suspicious to the FIC and prevent criminals from using institutions as conduit to facilitate ML/TF,” he said.

He further stated that the Greater Accra region will not be the only centre for the training as the Bank of Ghana will extend the workshop to other parts of the country to sensitize financial institutions in other regions.

“This year, the Bank of Ghana is advancing the work it started last year by engaging RCBs and MFIs to support the expansion of Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing (ML/FT) risk assessment methodology of the Bank of Ghana by including the lower-tiered institutions (RCBS/MFS) across the country in the programme.

I am glad to announce that we have successfully completed the training programme for the northern and the middle belts of the country and we are happy to commence with the southern belt today,” he said.

In June this year, Ghana came off the FATF grey list after the international Cooperation Review Group (CRG) of FATF conducted its on-site examination on Ghana in May to remain off the grey list.

This, Dr. France said, stakeholders in the fight against money laundering will have to ensure compliance with the laws and regulations in building and sustaining a robust AML/CFT regime.