The Financial Intelligence Authority(FIA) has dismissed reports that Uganda risks being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FTFT), for failure to put in place measures to effectively prevent financial crimes like money laundering.
The remarks followed the growing concern from players in the financial industry that the country could soon be blacklisted by international systems for failure to put in place measures to effectively prevent financial crimes.
The authority told the media in Kampala that Uganda is still on the grey list because there are still pending items to be fulfilled before the end of this month.
Countries that are on the grey list mean they are under increased monitoring, and actively working with FATF to address deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering and terrorism financing.
The FATF is an inter-governmental policy making body charged with fighting money laundering and the financing of terrorism with an aim of preventing illegal activities.
Sydney Asubo, executive director at FIA, the body set up to fight money laundering and financial terrorism told the Nile Post that when a country doesn't address the issues it might end up on the black list and this can affect the country's financial institutions to conduct international financial transactions.
"The country was placed in the FAFT money laundering watch list for the second time, as of January 2022 when the last assessment was done. We have addressed 6 of the 22 issues, and there are 16 pending. We are optimistic that from our engagements in May, there will be improvements," Asubo said.
He said that at the end of this month FATF is going to do an assignment to determine how far Uganda has gone in addressing these 22 items and then come to a conclusion.
"The standard requires that even for countries like us which don’t manufacture weapons of mass destruction, we should have a mechanism in our financial system to detect when others are moving such monies through our system," he said.
Asubo said when a country is placed under increased monitoring it means, the country has committed to resolve the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed time frames and subject to increased mentoring.
"Being on the grey list is a communication to the world that some issues have been identified, and are being addressed by that particular country, so that any foreign investor looking for a country to put their investment is aware of that country's status," Asubo said.
Countries on the grey list with Uganda include; South Sudan, Jamaica, Pakistan, Albania, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Haiti, Jordan, Mali, Malta, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Syria, Turkey, Yemen among others.
