UK Tags Ghana For Money Laundering And Terrorists Financing Again —Narcotic Transit Operations suspected

Ghana has suffered a big reputational blow as the country has once more been placed on the UK blacklist of countries notorious for money laundering and terrorist financing. 

Whatsup News is informed that what may be keeping Ghana on the list is because, under the Akufo Addo administration, the country is still being used as a serious transit point for narcotic drugs from South America into Europe.

In the latest Amendment of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations, the UK government placed Ghana among 21 countries noted as havens for the breaches.

The consequence of this listing is that transactions by Ghanaians, including Ghanaian businesses, in the UK or with UK businesses would now be subjected to far more rigorous and intrusive scrutiny by UK authorities to establish there is no link to terrorist groups. 

This latest blacklist is coming in the heels of a similar list presented by the European Union in 2020 when it described Ghana and several other countries as “high-risk third country”.

The other countries on the list include Albanis, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cayman Islands, Iran, Jamaica, Senegal, Syria, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Pakistan, Nicaragua, among others.

The EU’s revised list of high-risk third countries took effect on 1 October 2020. 

On 7 May 2020, the European Commission (EC) announced a revised list of high-risk third countries to align with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), this is despite the assurances given by the Akufo Addo administration as solving the situation to get Ghana off the list.