The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) and Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) have concluded a four-day joint nationwide training/sensitisation programme on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) reporting with the Bureaux de Change (BDC) operators.
The training, which has been ongoing since last month, focused on the obligation of registering and filing reports on the NFIU goAML-Anti-Money Laundering portal. A session was held on January 5, 2019 in Kano and another session held on January 22, 2019 in Abuja, among others.
As part of the NFIU/ABCON partnership, ABCON has taken the train-the-trainers’ training of the NFIU to the six geopolitical zones of the country in order to strengthen capacity for over 4,000 BDC operators nationwide.
Speaking to financial journalists at the end of the training, ABCON President, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said the anti-money laundering training is intended to familiarise BDC operators with the process of money laundering – the criminal business used to disguise the true origin and ownership of illegal cash – and the laws that make it a crime.
He said that money laundering and terrorism financing pose not only a threat, but are enormous threats and challenges to the economy, security, and social life in Nigeria, the region and globally.
In a statement by NFIU commending ABCON for the training, Ibrahim Pindar said: “We wish to congratulate ABCON on the attendance recorded on the concluded training of BDC operators on the key Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) obligation of registering and filing reports on the goAML-Anti-Money Laundering portal.”
The NFIU advised ABCON to train BDCs regularly so as to cover AML/CFT knowledge-gap identified from most operators and also ensure that their members register on the goAML portal.
NFIU recommended that: “Those trained by the NFIU team should be engaged by ABCON to train their members on continuous basis. Any change of Compliance Officer should promptly be reported to NFIU. ABCON should ensure that the operators have alternates for their Compliance Officers for succession planning and continuity.