Anti-money laundering seminar for West African journalists underway
A sensitization seminar on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism for West African journalists is underway in Monrovia with a call for active media involvement in the campaign.
The Director General of the Inter-Governmental Group of Action against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Dr. Abdullahi Shehu, said the seminar is one of their designed strategies to protect the national economies and financial systems of ECOWAS countries from the laundering proceeds of crimes.
In a message read on his behalf at the opening of the meeting, Dr. Shehu spoke of the need to forge strong partnership with the media, which he referred to as an agent of change and anti-corruption crusader.
“The promotion of strategic partnerships with civil society, including media organizations remains a priority of GIABA within its regional strategic framework”, Dr. Shehu said.
Liberia’s Acting Information Minister, Lawrence Tweh, on his part, termed money laundering as a “borderless menace” that threatens governments around the world.
Besides depriving societies of needed resources to carry on developments programs and improve living conditions, Mr. Tweh said monies laundered are also used to sponsor “extremist and terrorist movements that pressurize governments through unimaginable savagery to heed their demands.”
The two-day seminar, which opened Thursday, is intended to build the capacity of media practitioners and acquaint them with regional initiatives on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism framework in the region.
It brings together journalists from Anglophone West African countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and the Gambia.
GIABA’s head of Programs and Projects, Dr. Buno Nduka, said the seminar is part of the organization’s objective of partnering with the civil society, mass media and all stakeholders that are involved against these evils.He said the media being an instrument for providing information, is key in GIABA’s fight against these menace. “The media plays the role of disseminating this information in an effective manner to all segment of the population,” stressed Dr Nduka.
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