Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has reiterated the commitment of the commission towards combating money laundering and terrorism financing in the real estate sector of the economy.
He stated this in Abuja on Monday at a Workshop by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).
He said the Nigeria Evaluation Report shows that the real estate sector is the second most vulnerable sector to money laundering practices in Nigeria. .
According to him, places like Abuja , Port Harcourt, Kano, Lagos are some of the major cities where properties are regularly purchased mostly in cash and often in foreign currencies, with no questions asked by anybody, about the legality of such transactions.
Bawa, who spoke through his Chief of Staff, Hadiza Gamawa Zubairu, stressed that, based on the existing realities of the real sector, the EFCC will leave no stone unturned in combating money laundering practices in the sector.
“Just last year in July, the EFCC launched an App called “The Eagle Eye” which has eased the processes of reporting economic and financial crimes and also exposed the flow of illicit funds in the real estate sector. This indeed has provided useful intelligence and goes to show the level of commitment that EFCC has in the real estate sector”, she said.
Earlier in his opening remarks, GIABA director general, MR Aba Kimelabalou, said the primary objective of the programme is to provide supervisors, self-regulatory bodies and real estate practitioners with requisite knowledge on the vulnerabilities, methods and/or channels used by criminals in the real estate sector to launder money.
He said the 2nd round of Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) of Nigeria highlighted critical vulnerabilities which expose the real estate sector to ML/TF risk.
Kimelabalou said, “In particular, the MER noted the limited understanding of ML/TF risk and AML/CFT obligations, lack of AML/CFT policies; weak due diligence, the preponderant use of cash to finance real estate transactions, and general weak supervision and monitoring of industry players, as some of the factors that make the real estate sector attractive for potential misuse by money launderers. Thus, as it stands today, the real estate sector, and indeed all DNFBPs constitute a weak link in the implementation of AML/CFT measures in the country. This has adverse implications not only on national AML/CFT regime, but regional efforts in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.”
