The International Police Organization (INTERPOL) has launched a new module to tackle the menace of money laundering and illicit financial flows worldwide, especially in Africa.
The Module codenamed Silver Notices is aimed at tracking and repatriating stolen funds globally to their originating country.
INTERPOL’s vice president for Africa, Garba Umar, made the disclosure while opening a four-day training workshop for Nigerian law enforcement agencies at the EFCC Academy.
He said money laundering across Africa and the world has assumed a monstrous dimension, and INTERPOL has designed Silver Notices to combat the menace.
“Evidence has shown that every hour, hundreds of thousands of dollars are flowing out of Nigeria to the region and across the world, laundered before it reaches the pockets of criminals to enjoy the profits of their crimes, while the hardworking and honest Nigerians pay the price of crime.
“With every successful laundering of criminal money, our country becomes more prone to crime: more drugs, more fraud, more corruption and more violence. Every time criminal money is successfully laundered, our financial institutions take an additional blow,” Umar said.
Also speaking at the event, the chairman of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Kayode Olukoyede, represented by the director of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, FRAC, of the EFCC, Mr. Francis Usani, said there is a need for enhanced collaboration in tackling financial crimes.
He said that the complex nature of corruption worldwide could only be broken by the might of collaborative actions by every stakeholder.
