KAMPALA – Cabinet has approved the Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which, among others, seeks to stop illicit financial flows and terrorism financing in Uganda.
According to Col. Shaban Bantariza, the Deputy Executive Director, Uganda Media Centre, the Bill will also enable Uganda to attain sufficient global international cooperation in money laundering and terrorist financing investigations.
“Uganda will be admitted into the Egmont Group (a united body of 155 Financial Intelligence Units),” he said on Tuesday.
The Egmont Group provides a platform for the secure exchange of expertise and financial intelligence to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The group also supports the efforts of its international partners and other stakeholders to give effect to the resolutions and statements by the United Nations Security Council, the G20 Finance Ministers, and the Financial Action Task Force, among others.
Government has already established the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) to curb money laundering and related crimes such as terrorist financing. That approval the bill means it will now be debated in parliament before it can become law.
Developing countries, like Uganda, benefit from capacity building provided by the group and information shared among member financial intelligence institutions.
“Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) around the world are obliged by international Anti Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) standards to exchange information and engage in international cooperation. As an international financial intelligence forum the Egmont Group both facilitates and prompts this amongst its member FIUs,” the group says on its website.
Uganda was in November 2017 removed from the money laundering list of shame. This landmark decision was made during a technical review session convened by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Argentina in 2017
