Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur
Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur has expressed concern about money laundering in the West Africa sub-region.
He urged the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) to prepare to meet the challenges of the illicit activity.
He described GIABA as a very important organisation in the fight against money laundering, which he said creates problems for various economies.
The Vice President disclosed this when a delegation from GIABA, led by its Director General, Adama Coulibaly, paid a courtesy call on him at the Flagstaff House in Accra.
The visit was to inform the Presidency of the next GIABA technical and ministerial meeting scheduled from May 4-10 2014, in Niamey, Niger, and to seek the support of Ghana, as the current chair of the ECOWAS to support the meeting.
Mr Coulibaly commended the Vice President for the establishment of the Ghana Financial Intelligence Centre when he was the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
The Niamey meeting is in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) requirement, stipulating that a FATF-style Regional Body (FSRB) should meet once or twice a year, at technical and ministerial levels.
The GIABA, founded on 10 th December, 1999, was created as part of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with the objective to protect the banking and financial systems of member states from being penetrated by criminal proceeds.
It aims to ensure harmonization and implement measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
With its organizational structure made up of Special Committee of Ministers, Secretariat, Technical Commission and a Network of national representatives, its member states include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana and Guinea.
Others are Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone and Togo.
Business Desk report
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