Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has said that Namibia has completed its action plan that contained 13 strategic deficiencies in its Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT) framework.
At the time of being greylisted, the country made a firm political commitment to self-correct these 13 strategic deficiencies.
Bryan Eiseb, the director of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), said that the political and institutional commitments have yielded positive results in the just-ended FATF Plenary meeting held from 9–13 February 2026 in Mexico.
“During its Plenary meeting, the FATF accepted and made the initial determination that Namibia has substantially completed its action plan that contained the 13 strategic deficiencies, and the country warrants an on-site assessment to verify the implementation of AML/CFT reforms,” Eiseb said.
The FATF added that Namibia has made the following reforms, which include strengthening its AML/CFT risk-based supervision through enhancing human and resource capacities, conducting offsite and onsite inspections informed by supervisory risk assessment tools, and applying effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions for breaches of AML/CFT obligations.
In addition to this, the international financial watchdog institution has said that the country has enhanced preventive measures through inspections and outreach to ensure that financial institutions and other designated businesses apply enhanced due diligence measures, as well as targeted financial sanctions obligations related to terrorism financing and proliferation financing without delay.
Further to this, Namibia has also increased the filing of beneficial ownership information of legal persons and arrangements, and is applying remedial actions and/or effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions against breaches of compliance with beneficial ownership obligations.
Other action points include providing the Financial Intelligence Centre with adequate human and financial resources, as well as training, to improve operational and strategic analysis; and improving the cooperation between the FIU and law enforcement agencies to enhance the use and integration of financial intelligence in investigations.
Namibia has also enhanced the operational capabilities of authorities involved in money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF) investigations and prosecutions by providing them with adequate resources and targeted training.
“Demonstrating the law enforcement agencies’ capabilities to effectively investigate and prosecute ML/TF cases, Namibia has now remediated all 13 strategic deficiencies ahead of the May 2026 deadline, and the country will now be subjected to an onsite assessment by the Africa Joint Group (the Joint Group) as recommended by the FATF,” Eiseb concluded.
The FATF commended Namibia for its efforts and remarked that “our sustainable reforms were a model for other countries in the iCRG (greylisting) process.”
The next step to ensure that Namibia exits the grey list is the successful completion of the on-site assessment by reviewers of the Africa Joint Group. During the onsite assessment, the reviewers will verify whether all the required reforms as reported in progress reports are fully implemented.
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