Nigeria and South Africa have been removed from the Financial Action Task Force\u2019s (FATF) grey list, marking a win for two of Africa\u2019s biggest economies and potentially unlocking new remittance flows and foreign investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bloomberg reported<\/a> on Friday that the Paris-based watchdog said both countries, alongside Mozambique and Burkina Faso, are no longer subject to \u201cincreased monitoring\u201d for deficiencies in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.\u00a0<\/p>\n South Africa and Nigeria were added to the grey list in February 2023, a move that rattled investor confidence and raised compliance costs for cross-border transactions. Mozambique was listed in 2022, and Burkina Faso in 2021. The FATF had urged them to strengthen their anti-money-laundering regimes and improve transparency in their financial systems.<\/p>\n For Nigeria, the impact is expected to be immediate. The country receives around $20 billion in annual remittance inflows, and the FATF move could make it cheaper and easier for Nigerians abroad to send money home.<\/p>\n Finance Minister Wale Edun welcomed the news, calling it a signal to investors and global partners that Nigeria\u2019s institutions are \u201cstrong, transparent and internationally trusted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt will ease cross-border transactions, improve capital flows, including foreign direct investment,\u201d he told Bloomberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA major milestone in Nigeria\u2019s journey towards economic reform, institutional integrity and global credibility,\u201d President Bola Tinubu<\/a> added in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n South Africa\u2019s exit would help boost market optimism and signal progress on government reforms.\u00a0These exits signal a turning point for Africa\u2019s fintech and digital payments sectors, which bore the brunt of heightened scrutiny under grey-listing. With compliance risk now lower, fintechs, banks, and cross-border payment providers can access international banking rails more easily, potentially cutting transaction costs and unlocking new capital inflows.\u00a0<\/p>\n Compliance pays off<\/strong><\/p>\n For fintechs, the decision vindicates months of regulatory reforms. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has tightened<\/a> Know-Your-Customer (KYC) checks and licencing audits since 2023, while South Africa<\/a> passed sweeping anti-money-laundering amendments to align with FATF standards. These moves have restored some international confidence after years of de-risking by foreign banks that made it harder for local startups to access global payment partners.<\/p>\n However, this opportunity also raises the bar for compliance: fintechs and the larger financial landscape will now be held to world-class anti-money-laundering (AML) standards to keep investor trust.<\/p>\n The FATF, which is currently chaired by Mexican official Elisa de Anda Madrazo, has recently updated its grey-listing criteria, placing more emphasis on holding wealthier members accountable and reducing the compliance burden on less-developed economies.<\/p>\n South Africa is scheduled for its next full evaluation in April 2027, when FATF will apply its new methodology for assessing financial transparency and anti-money-laundering compliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigeria and South Africa have been removed from the Financial Action Task Force\u2019s (FATF) grey list, marking a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,179,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-143767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115432068472693465","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}