LAWS OF NIGERIA BY GENERAL CATEGORIES
MONEY LAUNDERING (PREVENTION AND PROHIBITION) ACT, 2022
LAWS OF THE FEDERATION OF NIGERIA
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
PART I—OBJECTIVES OF THIS ACT
1. Objectives.
PART II—PROHIBITION OF MONEY LAUNDERING
2. Limitation to make or accept cash payment.
3. Duty to report international transfer or transportation of funds, securities and cash.
4. Identification of customers.
5. Duties incumbent upon casinos.
6. Occasional cash transaction by designated non-financial businesses and professions.
7. Suspicious transaction reporting.
8. Preservation of records.
9. Communication of information.
10. Internal procedures, policies and controls.
11. Mandatory disclosure by financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions.
12. Prohibition of numbered or anonymous accounts, accounts in fictitious names and shell banks.
13. New products, business practices and technologies.
14. Liability of directors and employees of financial institutions and designated
Non-financial business and profession
15. Surveillance of bank accounts.
16. Determination of flow of transactions.
PART III—SPECIAL CONTROL UNIT AGAINST MONEY LAUNDERING
17. Establishment of the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering and functions.
PART IV—OFFENCES AND PENALTIES
18. Money laundering offences.
19. Other offences.
20. Retention of proceeds of an unlawful act.
21. Conspiracy, aiding and abetting.
22. Offences by a body corporate.
PART V—MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
23. Jurisdiction to try offences under this Act.
24. Power to demand and obtain records.
25. Obstruction of authorised officers.
26. Periodic furnishing of reports on money laundering.
27. Administrative penalties.
28. Regulations.
29. Repeals and other consequential amendments.
30. Interpretation.
31. Citation.
MONEY LAUNDERING (PREVENTION AND PROHIBITION) ACT, 2022
ACT No. 14
An Act to repeal the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, No. 11, 2011 and enact the Money Laundering (Prevention And Prohibition) Act, 2022 to provide comprehensive legal and institutional framework for the prevention and prohibition of money laundering in Nigeria, establish the Special Control Unit under the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission; and for related matters.
[COMMENCEMENT] [12TH DAY OF MAY, 2022]
ENACTED by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria—
PART I—OBJECTIVES OF THIS ACT
1. Objectives
(1) The objectives of this Act are to—
(a) provide for an effective and comprehensive legal and institutional framework for the prevention, prohibition, detection, prosecution and punishment of money laundering and other related offences in Nigeria;
(b) strengthen the existing system for combating money laundering and related offences;
(c) make adequate provisions to prohibit money laundering;
(d) expand the scope of money laundering offences and provide appropriate penalties; and
(e) establish the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for effective implementation of the money laundering provisions of the Act in relation to the designated non-financial businesses and professions.
PART II—PROHIBITION OF MONEY LAUNDERING
2. Limitation to make or accept cash payment.
(1) No person or body corporate shall, except in a transaction through a financial institution, make or accept cash payment of a sum exceeding—
(a) ₦5,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of an individual; or
(b) ₦10,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of a body corporate.
(2) A person shall not conduct two or more transactions separately with one or more financial institutions or designated non-financial businesses and professions with intent to—
(a) avoid the duty to report a transaction which should be reported under this Act; and
(b) breach the duty to disclose information under this act by any other means.
3. Duty to report international transfer or transportation of funds, securities and cash.
Cap. F34, LFN, 2004.
(1) A transfer to or from a foreign country of funds or securities by a person or body corporate including a money service business of a sum exceeding US$10,000 or its equivalent shall be reported to the Unit, Central Bank of Nigeria and Securities and Exchange Commission in writing within one day from the date of the transaction.
(2) A report made under subsection (1) shall indicate the nature and amount of the transfer, the names and addresses of the sender and the receiver of the funds or securities.
(3) Transportation of cash or negotiable instruments in excess of US$10,000 or its equivalent by individuals in or out of Nigeria shall be declared to the Nigerian Customs Service.
(4) The Nigerian Customs Service shall report any declaration made under subsection (3) to the Central Bank and the Unit.
(5) Any person who falsely declares or fails to make a declaration to the Nigerian Customs Service under section 12 of the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to forfeit the undeclared funds or negotiable instrument or to imprisonment for a term of at least two years or both.
4. Identification of customers.
(1) A financial institution and a designated non-financial business and profession shall—
(a) identify a customer, whether permanent or occasional, natural or legal person or any other form of legal arrangements, using identification documents as may be prescribed in any relevant regulation;
(b) verify the identity of that customer using reliable, independent source documents, data or information;
(c) identify the beneficial owner using relevant information or data obtained from a reliable source such that the financial institution or the designated non-financial business and profession is satisfied that it knows who the beneficial owner is; and
(d) take reasonable measures to verify that any person purporting to act on behalf of the customer is so authorised, identified and verify the identity of that person.
(2) Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions shall undertake customer due diligence measures when—
(a) establishing business relationships;
(b) carrying out occasional transactions above the applicable designated threshold prescribed by relevant regulations, including transactions carried out in a single operation or in several operations that appear to be linked;
(c) carrying out occasional transactions that are wire transfers;
(d) there is a suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing, regardless of any exemptions or thresholds; or
(e) the financial institution or designated non-financial business and profession has doubts about the veracity or adequacy of previously obtained customer identification data.
(3) Financial institutions or designated non-financial businesses and professions shall—
(a) conduct ongoing due diligence on a business relationship;
(b) scrutinise transactions undertaken during the course of the relationship to ensure that the transactions are consistent with the institution’s knowledge of the customer, their business and risk profile and where necessary, the source of funds; and
(c) ensure that documents, data or information collected under the customer due diligence process is kept up-to-date and relevant by undertaking reviews of existing records, particularly for higher risk categories of customers or business relationships.
(4) Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions shall take appropriate measures to manage and mitigate the risks and—
(a) where higher risks are identified, apply enhanced measures to manage and mitigate the risk;
(b) where lower risks are identified, take simplified measures to manage and mitigate the risks, provided that simplified customer due diligent measures are not permitted whenever there is suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing; and
(c) in the case of cross-border correspondent banking and other similar relationships and in addition to carrying out customer due diligence measures—
(i) gather sufficient information about a respondent institution,
(ii) assess the respondent institution’s anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism controls,
(iii) document respective responsibilities of each institution in this regard, and
(iv) obtain management approval before establishing new correspondent relationships.
(5) A casual customer shall comply with the provisions of subsection (2) for any number or manner of transactions including wire transfer involving a sum exceeding US$1,000 or its equivalent if the total amount is known at the commencement of the transaction or as soon as it is known to exceed the sum of US$1,000 or its equivalent.
(6) Where a financial institution or designated non-financial business and profession suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect that the amount involved in a transaction is the proceeds of a crime or an illegal act, it shall require identification of the customer notwithstanding that the amount involved in the transaction is less than US$1,000 or its equivalent.
(7) Financial institutions or designated non-financial business and profession shall put in place appropriate risk management systems and procedures to determine whether a customer or the beneficial owner of a customer is a politically exposed person.
(8) In relation to a foreign politically exposed person, the financial institution or designated non-financial institution shall in addition to the requirements of subsections (1) and (2)—
(a) obtain senior management approval before establishing (or continuing, for existing customers) such business relationships;
(b) take reasonable measures to establish the source of wealth and the source of funds of customers and beneficial owners identified as politically exposed persons; and
(c) conduct enhanced ongoing monitoring on that relationship.
(9) In relation to a domestic politically exposed persons or person who has been entrusted with a prominent function by an international organisation, the financial institution or designated non-financial institution shall in addition to the requirements of subsections (1) and (2), adopt the measures under subsection (8), where there is higher risk business relationship with such a person.
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LAWS OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
LAWS OF THE FEDERATION OF NIGERIA BY YEARS (MADE BETWEEN 1999-DATE)