Uganda’s parliament is pushing for extra funding for the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) ahead of a scheduled country mutual evaluation review set for 2028 that could reshape the local Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) enforcement agenda, The EastAfrican has learnt.

 

Whereas Uganda was removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist in February 2024, a follow-up technical review intended to address lagging compliance weaknesses identified in 11 reporting areas is scheduled for 2028 in an exercise that will impact the country’s AML/CFT enforcement ratings.

The FATF greylist refers to a gazetted list of countries that suffer from substantial weaknesses in their AML/CFT compliance regimes and are subject to heavy scrutiny in international financial markets.

Remedial measures meant to fix compliance gaps in the 11 problem areas include new legal changes targeted at AML/CFT laws, further technical training intended for AML/CFT compliance desk officers and wider enforcement actions targeted at 15 accountable persons or entities gazetted in the Anti-Money Laundering Act, among others.

The latter include commercial banks, insurance companies, real estate agents, law firms, forex bureaus, microfinance institutions, fund managers, mineral dealers, wildlife traders, cryptocurrency providers and casinos.

Technical updates to the national risk assessment report for AML/CFT enforcement guidance that capture new risks are also captured in the remedial package.

Risks of sliding back“The Committee observed that the country risks sliding back to the greylist if these activities remain unfunded. The Authority requires Ush4.5 billion ($1.2 million) to undertake these strategic actions. The Committee recommends that FIA be provided with Ush4.5 billion ($1.2 million) to undertake the above strategic actions with the aim of keeping Uganda off the FATF greylist…” reads the parliamentary budget committee report published in January.

“I cannot confirm our final budget allocation because the budget-making process is still ongoing. We have 11 deficient areas of compliance to tackle out of the 40 FATF oversight principles. Remedial activities connected to these areas are supposed to be implemented in the next financial year. One of the biggest lessons we picked during the greylisting period was early compliance efforts that help minimise chances of being hit with bad review scores during mutual evaluation meetings held by FATF,” said Samuel Were Wandera, FIA’s Executive Director.“The follow-up review exercise is mainly focused on the effectiveness of compliance measures and not merely ticking boxes,” said Michael Olupot Tukei, a former deputy executive director at FIA.

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