EFCC Tasks Real Estate Operators on Due Diligence on Customers

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has called on real estate operators across the country to always conduct due diligence on their customers and comply with all extant laws governing money laundering and terrorism financing.

This call was made by the Kano Zonal Commander of the EFCC, Assistant Commander of EFCC, ACE1 Farouq Dogondaji in his remarks at the opening ceremony of a two-day Workshop organized by the Special Control Unit Again Money Laundering, SCUML, Kano Command, for Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions, DSNFBPs in the zone.

Explaining the basis of the workshop, Dogondaji disclosed that the Commission has realized that the real estate sector is increasingly becoming a haven of illicit funds and operators in the sector need to learn new ways of identifying threats of money laundering. He stressed that SCUML will continue to conduct sensitization sessions to empower and enlighten  Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions,  DNFBPs, on new trends of money laundering and terrorism financing.

In her presentation, Nafeesa Sani, an Intelligence Analyst from Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit NFIU,  spoke on the need for DNFBPs to imbibe the culture of reporting Suspicious Transactions to the NFIU to safeguard their businesses.

“In today’s emerging risks and challenges, Financial institutions, FIs, and DNFBPs are seriously exposed to vulnerabilities of money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and consequently risk being sanctioned. It is therefore necessary to adopt preventive measures in the FIs and DNFBPs sector, to mitigate risks.”

Credit: EFCC