From 12th – 16th February, 2024, Ghana launched its Second National Risk Assessment blueprint. The World Bank Tool would be used for the Second National Risk Assessment with focus on sixteen (16) areas including some specific sectors within the economy. The sixteen (16) areas would include assessing national threats, national vulnerabilities, banking sector, securities sector, insurance sector, other financial institutions vulnerabilities, financial inclusion, designated non-financial businesses and professions, terrorist financing, legal persons and legal arrangements, Non-Profit Organization sector, proliferation financing, environmental crime, other sector of material and strategic importance, virtual asset service providers and tax crimes.
In attendance were one hundred and fifty (150) participants drawn from law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, Civil Society Organisations, public and private institutions. The Director -General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, the Registrar-General, Mrs. Jemima Oware, the Chief Executive Officer of the FIC, Mr. Kwaku Dua, the Acting Commissioner of Insurance, Mr. Michael Kofi Andoh, the Director of Policy and Research, GIABA, Mr. Muazu Umar, and representative from the Attorney General’s Department graced the opening session.
The key note speaker was the second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mrs. Elsie Awadzie, who underscored the importance of the assessment and encouraged participants to show commitment throughout the assessment process. She highlighted some of the stringent measures the country undertook in order to be taken off the FATF “Grey List” and informed participants that the findings of the National Risk Assessment would be used to evaluate the robustness of Ghana’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime for the upcoming Mutual Evaluation Exercise in 2025.