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After two years on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, Nigeria is stepping up its efforts to address strategic deficiencies in its anti-money laundering (AML) regime.
This week, governor Olayemi Cardoso announced that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will soon open a new compliance department to help align with global standards.
Speaking at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Cardoso said the new department will open in February and will also focus on improving transparency in Nigeria’s financial sector.
“The CBN is taking transformative steps to align with global standards and enhance transparency,” the CBN governor said.
In May last year, as covered by Vixio, Cardoso said he was “optimistic” that Nigeria would be removed from the greylist by Q2 2025.
Addressing a Nigerian bankers conference, the governor said that building a “robust culture of compliance” in the financial sector will be “critical” to the country’s exit from the greylist.
“Executives and boards set the tone by making compliance a strategic priority, championing zero tolerance for breaches — not just in policy, but in practice,” he said, describing his hopes for 2025.
“Teams are educated to recognise red flags and are encouraged to report concerns about fraud, money laundering or unethical behaviour, knowing they are protected.”
Cardoso added that the CBN will not hesitate to pursue further enforcement action against non-compliant financial institutions.
At the time, he said the CBN had recently imposed financial penalties on 29 banks for AML and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) breaches, totalling NGN15bn ($9m).
Improving transparency in Nigeria’s FX market
Elsewhere in his NESG speech this week, Cardoso announced that the CBN is planning to launch a Foreign Exchange Code that will aim to improve transparency and fairness in the country’s FX market.
“We are committed to reducing the disparity between bureau de change and official exchange rates, while fostering exchange rate stability to attract foreign investments and support fiscal operations,” he said.
Over the past ten years, as covered by Vixio, the Nigerian naira has lost more than 90 percent of its value against the US dollar.
This includes a one-day drop of 30 percent that took place in June 2016, when a weak oil market and a shortage of dollars at the CBN forced it to abandon its previous fixed exchange rate.
As of 2024, however, the naira is beginning to show signs of stability, and the CBN continues to introduce new policies aimed at ensuring that the official FX market reflects the true value of the naira.
Earlier this month, the CBN gave financial institutions the green light to offer two new types of accounts to non-resident Nigerians, both for saving and investment purposes.
The two accounts aim to encourage Nigerians who live and work overseas to repatriate their foreign income, thereby helping to bolster Nigeria’s FX reserves and restore confidence in the naira.
