On Thursday, 15 May, national authorities announced that Mozambique has met all indicators to be removed from the ‘grey list’ of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the body that assesses the implementation of measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, revealing that the final decision will be taken in September during a meeting to be held in Maputo.
‘We are waiting to receive the procedures to leave the grey list for good and return to normality, so that we are no longer known as a money laundering country. We want to restore national institutions so that investors can regain confidence in our business environment,’ said Luís Abel Cezerilo, national coordinator for Mozambique’s removal from the grey list.
He added that the country’s image has improved recently in the eyes of international financial institutions, noting that all indicators have been met and that only ‘protocol procedures’ remain before the announcement of its removal from the list.
‘The government has complied with all requirements. The FATF is a serious institution and will therefore not give us any other reason not to remove us from the grey list. The process of removing Mozambique from the grey list could take place in September at a meeting to be held in the country,’ he said.
At one point, the Mozambican authorities had said that Mozambique’s removal from the ’grey list’ was pending the completion of the last of the 26 actions required by the FATF regarding the list of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that move large sums of money, including data on the application of the amounts, with particular concern in Cabo Delgado and the terrorist groups operating in that province since 2017.
Mozambique was placed on the FATF’s so-called ‘grey list’ on 22 October 2022 for failing to address deficiencies in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
