Mozambique committed to combating money laundering and financial crimes

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Mozambique committed to combating money laundering and financial crimes

1:28 CAT | 17 Jul 2025

Screen grab: TVM

Following a meeting with the government in Maputo, the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) yesterday acknowledged that Mozambique had demonstrated its “commitment” to removing itself from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) “grey list”.

“Mozambique has demonstrated its commitment to this process. We are very pleased to have reached this stage where there is light at the end of the tunnel,” said ESAAMLG Executive Secretary Fikili Zitha, after a meeting with the Mozambican prime minister and minister of finance.

Speaking to reporters at the end of the meeting, Fikili Zitha explained that she is in Mozambique with a team that will support the country in preparing for the meeting, which will be held in Maputo from September 8th to 11th, to decide, in October, on Mozambique’s possible removal from the international money laundering ‘Grey List’.

“We are confident that Mozambique has done enough to prepare itself, considering all the resources invested in this process. It is not an easy process. It is a very demanding process, both financially, in terms of resources and time,” Fikili Zitha explained.
Mozambique had from the beginning demonstrated a “political commitment”, Fikili Zitha noted, and had welcomed the FATF requests, “not just as a mandatory requirement,” but rather as “something positive for the country, for the economy, and for investment”.

“So that Mozambique is seen as a safe destination for investors and also so that Mozambicans can travel freely and consume, with all banking facilities, without any restrictions,” she explained.

The Financial Action Task Force is a global intergovernmental body that promotes policies and establishes international standards regarding the combating of money laundering, terrorist financing, and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Mozambique was placed on its Grey List in 2022 after several problems and deficiencies in this area were detected.
Mozambique is not a member of the FATF, but participates through the ESAAMLG, which is an associate member of the body.

The team led by Fikili Zitha will assess, before the FATF meeting, the country’s mechanisms and measures to combat terrorist financing and money laundering.

ESAAMLG has urged Mozambique to move forward with combating these crimes, including, from the outset, considering changes to its legal framework to combat transnational illegalities, requiring information exchange and cooperation with other states.

The FATF Council of Ministers approved “the on-site visit for September 8th and 9th” as an essential step in the process of removing Mozambique from the grey list.

Finance Minister Carla Loveira, present at this Wednesday’s meeting, told reporters that Mozambique will focus on the “sustainability” of measures to combat terrorist financing, money laundering, and the use of the financial system for crimes to avoid returning to the grey list in 2030, when a new assessment will take place.

According to Minister Loveirar, the ongoing work involves “various branches of government in the country” to ensure “a sound decision in October (…), a step toward exiting the grey list” and the path forward, in order to maintain the country “permanently in a favourable situation.”

Besides Mozambique, the grey list also includes Angola, as well as neighbouring countries such as Namibia, South Africa, and Tanzania, among others.

Mozambican authorities announced on May 15 that the country had met all the indicators, deficiencies which had led to their initial inclusion on the FATF grey list of financial jurisdictions on October 22, 2022, specifically for failing to eliminate deficiencies in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Source: Lusa