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Ethiopia to Amend Money Laundering Law

The Financial Intelligence Center is preparing a draft bill to amend the ‘Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism proclamation’ enacted in 2009.

The amendment is necessary because the current bill is vague and does not comply with international conventions it was said.

The amendment will seek to refine the current law by detailed definitions of some of the terms, to avoid constant cross referencing to other laws and take into account international conventions according to Berihu Tewoldebirhan, Legal Services Head with FIC.

Stakeholders such as the National Bank of Ethiopia, the Ministry of Justice, the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority, the Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission, and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development all contributed to the amendment noted Berihu.

An international consultant was also hired two months ago to oversee the progress of the proclamation and the FIC will take into account all inputs in finalizing the draft he said. The FIC will meet with banks and other financial institutions to review the bill once it is finalized said Berihu.

The original proclamation was introduced with the aim of protecting the financial sector form money laundering with illegal gains being legitimatized through various routes including investment, gifts and remittance.

The FIC was set up by the current bill with the purpose of investigating potential cases of money laundering and financing of terrorist activities and to ensure compliance of procedures by all accountable persons as well as enhancing public awareness and launching all necessary information management systems.

Source: Addis Fortune