South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
Countries globally have put in efforts to combat Anti-money laundering.
Anti-money laundering is an international web of laws, regulations, and procedures aimed at uncovering money that has been disguised as legitimate income. For centuries, governments and law enforcement agencies have tried to fight crime by following the money.
Several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have been black listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)- the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. The affected countries do not have strong institutions in place to detect and monitor illicit finances.
South Sudan being a new country seems to be a safe haven for laundering illicit money from corrupt officials from outside and also those within the country. These shadowy individuals take advantage of the weakness in the rule of law, and enforcement to keep their illicit finances here.
The disadvantages being on the blacklist of the FATF is that genuine foreign investors turn away from investing their money in a country where illicit finances are being stashed.
The affected governments also tend to find very difficult to get financial assistance from international lending institutions.
Therefore, the transitional unity government should do more to ensure illicit financing is dealt with to avoid being disadvantaged.
