SENSITIZATION WORKSHOP

SENSITIZATION WORKSHOP ON “ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING/COUNTER-TERRORISM FINANCING MEASURES FOR NPO’S IN GHANA”

The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering (GIABA)’s Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) in 2019, rated Ghana as non-compliant to FATF’s Recommendation 8.  GIABA was particularly concerned that Ghana’s regulatory framework was porous and exposed the NPOs to the abuse of money laundering and financing terrorist activities. Consequently, in 2020, Ghana was blacklisted by the European Union (EU) due to weak anti-money laundering and terrorist financing policy and legislative measures.

In response, the Government of Ghana (GoG) undertook a number of steps to strengthen its legal and regulatory frameworks: (1) enacted the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044); (2) drafted the National Non-Profit Organization Policy 2020; (3) and established the NPO secretariat to facilitate and enforce regular reporting and renewal of operating permits for NPOs. These were aimed at helping the country meet its international obligations relating to AML/CFT measures.  While these measures undeniably contribute to the fight against terrorism, they have also inadvertently encumbered the operations of civil society organizations (CSOs).  According to ICNL (2021), globally there have been a number of cases when overregulation related to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) has negatively affected nonprofit organizations (NPOs). Some of these negative unintended impacts on NPOs include stringent regulations and financial restrictions imposed on NPOs.

Against this background, IDEG conducted a baseline study to examine the impact of these regulatory measures on the operations of NPOs. IDEG is subsequently, organizing a sensitization workshop to educate NPO’s and raise awareness on these measures.