FIA engages media on money laundering
Botswana’s Financial Intelligence Agency, (FIA) has extended a call for media to join the fight against money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing.
The call comes ahead of the next mutual evaluation, expected in 2027 under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organisation founded to develop policies to combat money laundering.
“In this battle, the journey is the destination, therefore, as the media, your contribution will have a significant impact on the expected outcome in a positive manner, particularly as it relates to spreading the message and reducing the information deficit on the AML/ CFT issues,” said Bopelokgale Soko, Director General of FIA.
Soko said FIA, as the National Coordinator in the Anti-Money Laundering or Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) space, needs to prepare the country for the next mutual evaluation by coordinating efforts.
“There is evidence that shows that the level of awareness on AML/ CFT issues is very low across all sectors of the economy.”
She emphasized that the main role of the FIA is to protect the integrity of the financial system in the country, making sure that it does not facilitate criminals to easily carry out their criminal activities.
“We do that by visually patrolling the highways of the financial sector, and identifying suspicious activities, substantiating them and once substantiated, we package them and send them to the authorities in charge of criminal investigations and prosecutions,” said Soko.
Soko said that there is evidence that shows that the level of awareness on AML/CFT issues is very low across all sectors of the economy.
In the past 36 months, all the countries that were evaluated in the ESAAMLG region, have been found to have significant deficiencies and therefore qualified to be grey listed.
Meanwhile, FIA will commemorate its 10th year anniversary in the next five months to be punctuated by several activities under the theme: ‘Public and Private Partnership; an essential component of an effective AML/CFT/CFP regime’.”