Uganda Remains on FATF Graylist for Failing to Curb Money Laundering

Uganda is still under the scrutiny of AML/CFT agencies after failing to enforce regulations in NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) and for a lack of progression in dealing with money laundering cases.

The efforts made by Uganda to exit the global money laundering graylist have failed over the past three years. According to financial experts, “The global Anti-Money Laundering/ Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) gray list maintained by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) based in Paris, consists of countries with significantly weak anti-money laundering and terrorist financing enforcement regimes; that are prone to be blacklisted in the international financial system in case of persistent compliance shortcomings,” 

Being on a graylist usually results in high costs on electronic and financial transfers of commercial banks, large costs on processing letters of credit, and an increase in transaction fees and overseas remittances with reduced dollar inflows. 

A new deadline of June 2023 was issued to Uganda last month after it failed to fulfill the FATF requirements. The Deputy Executive Director of Uganda’s FIA (Financial Intelligence Authority) stated, “We are optimistic to exit by year-end. The items remaining are very few, though the language/wording FATF used on a statement for Uganda has become much stronger.”

“The FATF expresses concern that Uganda failed to complete its action plan, which expired in May 2022. It strongly urges Uganda to swiftly demonstrate significant progress in completing its action plan by June 2023 or it will consider next steps if there is insufficient progress,” reads a FATF country assessment brief.

South Africa and Nigeria were added to the graylist including other African nations such as Tanzania, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique, and Senegal. Recently Morocco and Cambodia were removed from the graylist after they successfully implemented new compliance measures.

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