The Central Bank of Nigeria has vowed to deal decisively with any bank that colludes with corrupt government officials and other individuals to engage in money laundering.
This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Deputy Governor of CBN in charge of Financial System Surveillance, Mr. Okechukwu Joseph Nnanna, at a workshop organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).
At the workshop which focused on “Risk Assessment on Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing”, Nnanna said:
“Any bank which we discover has been used, or manipulated by criminals who launder money, corrupt politicians who launder money, that bank and directors would be held accountable.
“Not only paying fines, we can also ask them to be blacklisted and will never work in the financial system any more. That is a very severe punishment.
“People who finance terrorists come in different guises, they may be genuine businessmen who after a while may turn to be criminals but what is important is for the banks to make sure that the customer who comes to deposit money and withdraw money, they must know who he is. Not only knowing who he is, they must know his or her business.”
In the same vein, the ECOWAS Director General of GIABA, Mr. Adama Coulibaly, who was also at the event, decried the apparent increase in money laundering activities which contributes to financing terrorism.