Kenya’s FIU Lauds EFCC on AML, CFT frameworks

The Director General of Kenya’s Financial Reporting Centre, FRC, Saitoti Kimerei Maika, has commended the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) of the Economic Financial Crimes, EFCC, in its strategic efforts in implementing the anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism frameworks in Nigeria.  

The frameworks, which are in line with  the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022  and the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2022 are in compliance with international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Maika, who spoke through James Manyonge,  Director of Legal Compliance and External Relations at Kenya’s Financial Reporting Centre , gave the commendation in Abuja on Thursday, October 9, 2025 when he led other members of his team on a study visit to the SCUML office.

He described  SCUML’s doggedness and resilience in implementing the  AML/CFT/CPF frame works as exemplary, adding that his team came to Nigeria to understudy the secret behind the country’s  success in implementing the frameworks. Hae also sought SCUML’s  support and collaboration in fighting the menace across the Sahel region.

He particularly explained that collaboration with SCUML was important for his Centre to understand the Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions, DNFBPs, which have been identified as potentially vulnerable to money laundering  and terrorist financing.

We are in Nigeria to study how Nigeria implemented some of the measures to combat anti-money laundering and terrorism financing,  and in Kenya, as FIU, we have many roles and purposes. We are the central agency for receiving and analysing suspicious transactions and disseminate intelligence to law enforcement agencies.

So, the purpose of our visit today, is that we are really interested in understanding the DNFBPs’ supervision and how SCUML takes the supervision and we have to learn from them because as a regulator, one of the challenges we have in Kenya is how to regulate the DNFBPs sector, ” he said.

Former Head of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, GIABA, Professor Abdullahi Shehu , while commenting on the FRC’s visit to Nigeria, confirmed that  the DNFBPs’ sector is posing challenges  to Kenya and the visit was to enable the Kenya’s FRC, understudy what Nigeria has done and what they can gain from the Nigerian experience to improve their own AML/CFT/CPF regime and also to address and interact with the FATF on being on the Grey List.

“Perhaps, what they are likely going to learn, let me use my personal experience here, we learnt the functions of SCUML.   SCUML was the first initiative in Africa to get a specialized Unit that regulates and supervises the DNFBPs sector.  It was on the account of this in 2008 that Nigeria was rated largely compliant….at that time, Nigeria was the first country in Africa to establish this type of outfit. And I believe that they are going to learn something from the Nigerian experience”, he said.

Commenting on the visit,  the Divisional Head, Legal and Head National Coordination Office, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, Chinedum Odenyi, said the participants have visited all the stakeholders in the AML/CFT/CPF.  According to him, their interests bothered on understanding how Nigeria was able to unify the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and how the country was able to bring every stakeholder into one room, especially working to exit the FATF grey list,  

SCUML’s Director, Deputy Commander of the EFCC,  DCE Harry Erin,  who represented the  Executive Chairman of the Economic and Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, in welcoming he guests, assured that Nigeria  will not withhold any knowledge from them, especially owing to the purpose of their study tour  which is a knowledge sharing engagement.

“Your visit comes at a very important time in our collective efforts across the African continent to strengthen Anti-Money Laundering, Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing, AML/CFT/CPF frame work. Collaboration and peer learning such as this remains central to our shared vision of building resilient systems that protect our economies and financial integrity,” he said.

Olukoyede explained that  SCUML was established under the EFCC to monitor, regulate and supervise the activities of Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professionals, DNFBPs, in Nigeria, stressing that over the years,  the Unit has evolved from simple registration and compliance monitoring to a dynamic and risk-based supervisory body.

The EFCC boss stresses  that the Unit is working closely with Self-Regulatory Bodies, SRBs, trade associations, and development partners to deepen AML/CFT/CPF, compliance in high-risk sectors such as real estate, legal and accounting professionals, trust and company services, and dealers in precious metals and stones.

“Our model of public-private sector engagement through initiatives such as the SCUML Public-Private Sector Dialogue Forum and targeted capacity-building programmes has proven instrumental in driving compliance ownership and improving effectiveness. These experiences, along with lessons learned from Nigeria’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its AML/CFT/CPF regime and exit the FATF ICRG process, offer valuable insights that we are pleased to share with you,” he said.

The participants took lecture courses on Registration and Outreach,  Compliance and Enforcement, Strategic Analysis,  Data Analysis, among others.