Nigerians may no longer be able to carry out international transactions as Egmont Group is considering expelling the (NFIU) because of governance issues.
A major consequence of the expulsion will be the blacklisting of Nigeria in international finance.
This could affect use of MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards by Nigerians.
It could also affect the international rating of Nigerian financial institutions, restricting their access to some big-ticket international transactions.
Nigeria will also no longer be able to benefit from financial intelligence shared by the other member countries, including the US and the UK.
Also to be affected is the country’s ability to recover stolen funds abroad.
TheCable understands that the expulsion is part of the agenda of Egmont’ working group and heads of FIU meeting between March 2 and March 7, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The group, comprising 153 countries, mandates its members to establish a financial intelligence unit that serves as a national centre for the receipt and analysis of (1) suspicious transaction reports; and (2) other information relevant to money laundering, associated predicate offences and financing of terrorism, and for the dissemination of the results of that analysis.
All advanced countries are members of the group, which is an initiative of the American government.
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