. Msiska

By KASONDE KASONDE –
GOVERNMENT has intensified its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing as the vices have adverse social and security implications on economic growth.
Secretary to the Cabinet Roland Msiska said money laundering and terrorist financing had the potential of destabilising the financial sector.
He was speaking at the launch of a money laundering terrorist financing national risk assessment report in Lusaka yesterday.
Dr Msiska said dealing with money laundering and terrorist financing required a national response and inter-agency national risk assessment of money-laundering and terrorist-financing was an important step to better understand the country’s vulnerabilities.
He said identification, assessing and understanding of money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks were essential parts of the development and implementation of effective anti-money laundering/countering techniques.
Dr Msiska said the national risk assessment report would assist in the prioritisation and efficient allocation of resources by authorities and provision of useful information to reporting entities to support the conduct of their own risk assessments.
“The objectives of the national risk assessment are to examine money-laundering and terrorist financing methods used in the country and identify gaps in the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism systems and controls,” Dr Msiska said.
Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) Director General Mary Tshuma said the launch of the national risk assessment report was a first for Zambia and would help in curbing money-laundering activities.
Ms Tshuma said the report would see Zambia apply a risk-based approach to ensure that measures implemented by supervisory authorities and regulated entities were commensurate with the level of money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks.