The Corporate Affairs Commission has pledged to strengthen its relationship with the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit to ensure Nigeria exits the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list.
The Registrar-General and Chief Executive Officer of the CAC, Ishaq Magaji, stated this on Friday while receiving the Director/CEO of the NFIU, Hafsat Bakari, on a courtesy visit to the commission.
In a post on its official handle on X, CAC noted that Magaji approved the immediate set-up of a joint committee with the NFIU and a dedicated desk to handle all its matters.
Magaji urged the NFIU to ensure optimal utilisation of the Application Programming Interface granted to it by the CAC.
He used the forum to call for knowledge sharing and capacity building for the benefit of staff.
The CAC boss added that the existing MOU between the two agencies would be reviewed for greater efficiency.
Earlier, the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Finance Intelligence Unit, Hafsat Bakari, acknowledged the strong relationship existing between the NFIU and the CAC towards strengthening the fight against money laundering, illicit financial flows, and other serious predicate offences in the country.
Bakari said, “As an agency that relies on access to reliable and high-quality data, the NFIU was pleased with the strides made by the CAC in developing a world-class Beneficial Ownership Information Register.”
She added that the BOI was critical to the NFIU and law enforcement agencies as they utilise it to trace and identify the beneficiaries of illicit proceeds.
Bakari, therefore, called for greater collaboration between both agencies to support the efforts of the Federal Government to ensure Nigeria exits the FATF grey list in the shortest possible time.
According to the NFIU boss, CAC’s role is critical, as two of the 15 items on its action plan fall squarely within the remit of the commission.
SOURCE: PUNCHNG
