The Director General of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Mr. Edwin W. Harris, Jr has emphasised that money laundering and Terrorist Financing constitute major obstacles to development.
He made these remarks while delivering a statement recently at the opening ceremony of the 5th Regional Inter-Universities Speech contest on the impact of money laundering and Terrorist Financing on Economies of West Africa, held on 14th December 2022 at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center, Bijilo.
The event was organised by FIU Gambia with technical and financial support from GIABA.
The inter-Universities Speech Contest target the knowledge base of students at the tertiary level in the area of AML/CFT within the region. “It is in pursuant of this objective that the English-speaking countries of ECOWAS are all invited and gathered through their student representatives.
The DG explained that crimes have had an adverse impact on regional security and development, including erosion of reputation to the image of member States, loss of foreign direct investment, poor infrastructural development, dwindling confidence, and distortions in our political as well as financial systems.
The Director General of GIABA further stated that in response to the devastating effects of these crimes, the authorities of the ECOWAS established the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money laundering in West Africa and GIABA in the year 2000 as a clear demonstration of their political will to address these challenges within the region and also to support the global fight against these vies.
The primary mandate of GIABA, he said, is to develop measures to protect the economies of member states from abuse and the laundering of the proceeds of crimes and to strengthen cooperation amongst its member States.
In addition, he said GIABA is a Financial Action Task Force FATF-Stylled Regional body (FSRB), with a responsibility to assess member States’ compliance with acceptable international AM/CFT standards.
This year, we have contestants from The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
He recalled that the first edition was held in Accra, Ghana in 2013, Subsequent editions have been held in Abidjan, Cote d Ivories’ in 2017, Enugu, Nigeria in 2019; and Bissau, in 2021, and the fifth edition now in 2022 in Gambia.