The European Union (EU) is expected to remove Ghana from its anti-money laundering list come next month June 2021.
The exclusion of Ghana from the list was announced at a meeting between President Akufo-Addo and the President of the European Council, His Excellency Charles Michel.
According to the European Commission, the EU has acknowledged efforts made by Ghana in implementing the action plan of the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) in record time.
The Commission, thus, congratulated Ghana for the reforms embarked on, as well as the sustainable, robust systems deployed towards being taken of the list.
Following the announcement made at the meeting, it is expected that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, will, in June 2021, announce that Ghana has been taken off its list of high risk, third-world countries with strategic deficiencies in Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Terrorism Financing.
Ghana was last year added to a list of 12 countries with weak or deficiencies in Anti Money Laundering and Terrorism financing laws by the EU.
The list published on May 7, 2020, by the EU also included the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Panama and Zimbabwe.
According to the EU, the weakness identified in the listed countries possess a serious risk to their financial system hence the action.
Ghana’s Finance Ministry following the country’s inclusion to the list, described the action as surprising and unfortunate, especially when government asserted that they had already taken steps to address all the issues identified by the FATF.
