New Financial Intelligence Authority boss asked to get Uganda off grey list

The State Minister for Finance in charge of general duties, Henry Musasizi has asked Samuel Were Wandera, the  Financial Intelligence Authority(FIA) Executive Director to help Uganda get off the grey list for money laundering.

Wandera was in July appointed by President Museveni as the new FIA boss to replace Sydney Asubo after his two terms came to an end.

Asubo will now be an advisor to the Uganda Anti Money Laundering/ Combating the Financing of Terrorism(AML/ CFT) national task force.

Speaking on Tuesday during the official hand over of office, Minister Musasizi said the work is cut out for the new FIA boss to help Uganda get off the money laundering grey list.

 Grey list

Uganda was   placed on the grey list in 2020, a list that highlights countries that have significant shortfalls in tackling money laundering.

The grey list shows the performance of countries regarding the safety or level of risk of their financial systems.

Uganda was placed on the grey list after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) declined to adopt the country's money laundering and terror financing risk assessment report, done by the Ministry of Finance, the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) and some NGOs in 2018.

The consequence of Uganda’s being blacklisted is that transactions originating from Uganda or made through Uganda’s financial system and cash from or to the country, face more scrutiny by the international systems, which leads to delays in concluding business transactions.

Additionally, when a country is blacklisted, countries or other financial jurisdictions may block some transactions if they cannot ascertain the source or destination of the money or prove that it has nothing to do with money laundering.

This move greatly delays business transactions and increases the cost of doing business.

Who is the new FIA boss?

Wandera is an economist, a certified PRINCE2 member in managing successful programs in a controlled environment, and a certified anti-money laundering specialist.

He is a country’s peer assessor on anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing matters.

Wandera has wealth of experience in strategic planning, stakeholder management, risk management, and financial analysis.

He has previously served at the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development in various capacities, where he was also involved in setting up and operationalisation of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework in Uganda.

He has been the director of compliance and training at the Financial Intelligence Authority.