The authorities told Lusa on Monday 28 January that Mozambique could leave the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) ‘grey list’ of financial jurisdictions in March.
‘We received the results of the sixth evaluation report from the FATF. The country was assessed on the 26 actions it had to comply with and was positively approved on 25,’ said the national coordinator for the removal of Mozambique from the grey list, Luís Abel Cezerilo.
Mozambique was included on the grey list on 22 October 2022, due to deficiencies in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Luís Cezerilo, who is also the deputy director-general of Mozambique’s Financial Intelligence Office, pointed out that the country had an ‘exceptional result’ in the latest FATF assessment, underlining the ‘great political commitment to the fulfilment of its action plan.’
Mozambique’s removal from the grey list is now dependent on compliance with the last of the 26 required actions: the presentation to the FATF of a list of Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) that move ‘large sums of money’, including information on the application of these amounts.
‘What’s missing is an immediate result, which has to do with the Non-Profit Organisations, so that we can identify which of them fall within the FATF’s recommendation. The country has already done everything; the only thing missing is for these organisations to update their databases,’ explained Cezerilo.
Luís Abel Cezerilo
He also warned that current legislation only requires organisations to update their information when they are legally established. ‘We’ve already done everything. The law, which we can’t go against, requires organisations to register at the time of their incorporation. What we’re going to do is collate all the organisations that have registered by March, so that we have the exact number and can inform the FATF,’ he concluded.
A government report, drawn up as part of Mozambique’s commitment to be a member of the FATF global network, concluded in June that there is no evidence of links between NPOs and terrorist financing, which affects the province of Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country, although vulnerabilities have been identified.
‘No links or use of NPOs for terrorist financing were identified. Nor was any evidence found of fraud and corruption practices in the NPO sector, nor of crimes such as money laundering,’ reads the report.
The document does, however, recognise the ‘existence of the terrorist group in Mozambique, which operates in Cabo Delgado, called ASWJ (Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamaah), and its connection to the Islamic State.’
The report warns that ‘potentially, terrorist actors could abuse these organisations, using them as vehicles for receiving financial resources from abroad for internal channelling’, and also highlights the use of ‘religious institutions, such as mosques and madrasahs, for recruitment and logistical support’, as well as the possibility of ‘terrorist supporters’ presenting themselves ‘falsely as humanitarian aid agencies to hide their activities.’
