We resolved to never get blacklisted again – Masisi
Spira Tlhankane | Tuesday May 7, 2024 06:00
This, he said, is to ensure that the two small countries never return to the infamous blacklist. Masisi, who discussed with The Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis at the two-day Global Citizen NOW 2024 Summit held in New York, USA recently, indicated that both countries share a history of being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). He said as a result they have resolved to never end up back on the greylist as they exchange notes through their regulatory institutions, financial sectors, and ministries. Masisi emphasised that the two countries will make sure that they never regress. The FATF, the world’s leading multinational anti-money laundering agency, placed Botswana on its greylist in 2018 citing deficiencies in its money laundering structures, leading the European Union to place the country on a blacklist in 2019.
Masisi happily announced in late 2021 that FATF had ended a three-year censure that had impacted Botswana’s investment charm. The negative listing increased the cost of local financial institutions doing business with international banks and other organisations due to the higher due diligence that is applied to them. The listing by the global bodies has also dulled the country’s much-hailed investment climate. In 2020, The Bahamas was officially removed from the FATF greylist of nations deemed to have deficiencies in their anti-financial crime defences. This followed the FATF conducting an on-site visit to the country. The FATF then congratulated The Bahamas for the ‘significant progress’ it had made in improving its Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Financing of Terrorism (CFT), and Counter-Financing of Proliferation (CFP) regime. The FATF stated that The Bahamas had strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT system and addressed related technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in its action plan and remedy the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF in October 2018. Masisi further disclosed that Botswana in making sure that its name never makes it back to the list, adding the country is linking up with some leading global companies, institutions, organisations, and countries such as The Bahamas.
Masisi added fact that The Bahamas is a global leader in the financial services sector and has digital currency managed by the central bank strengthens the two countries’ relations. “We have stopped cheque payments and they want to learn from that so our central banks have gotten together and they are learning from each other,” he said. Masisi emphasised that they are small countries but want to shake the world. “As we tessellate we hope for global impact in the example that we set,” he further indicated. The President pointed out that one of the advantages of Botswana and The Bahamas getting together is that it is easier to move the needle because the duo are both well-governed and committed to peace. “We are bringing about the new age policies to include many more young people in response to our demographic realities. We have a youthful population as a developing country and we want to take advantage and optimise our comparative advantages one of which we zeroing in on and we are laser-focused on digitising our economy,” Masisi said. “We want to use that as a lever to extrapolate or evacuate ourselves out of the realities of being landlocked in the fastest ways possible,” he Masisi added.
The Summit brought together global political cultural, philanthropic, and private sector leaders to discuss turning ideas into actionable impacts to end extreme poverty. Botswana and The Bahamas have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding on collaboration and Davis earlier this year visited Botswana replicating Masisi’s visit in the Caribbean country last year.