Religious leaders in the country are to undergo a two-day training workshop to educate them on money laundering and financing of terrorism to help combat the menace.
The two-day Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) seminar has the objective to raise the awareness level of religious leaders on their role on AML/CFT.
The workshop, to be organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), a specialised agency under ECOWAS, is slated for October 21-22, 2025.
A statement issued by GIABA and signed by the Acting Principal Officer of GIABA, Timothy Melaye, and copied to The Ghanaian Times said the workshop would take place from October 21-22, 2025, in Accra.
The statement said the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing was a collective responsibility of all stakeholders towards protecting the economies and financial systems from the laundering of proceeds of crime.
“GIABA recognises the valuable contribution of religious leaders as guardians of faith and their institutions hold tremendous sway amongst their followers,” the statement said.
It said one of GIABA’s core Strategic Goals in its 2011-2014 Strategic Plan was the promotion of strategic partnerships with the private sector, civil society and other key stakeholders aimed at increased awareness of ML/TF in order to empower citizens to take action.
Recognizing the role of religious leaders in Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) and promoting the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue, the United Nations Secretary General enshrined in its Plan of Action on PVE the importance for faith and community leaders to mentor “vulnerable followers so as to enable them to reject violent ideologies” and promote “tolerance, understanding and reconciliation between communities.”
GIABA said the involvement of religious leaders was vital in the fight against ML/TF to be legitimate as well as effective and sustainable as religious faith appealed to people on emotional levels for attitudinal changes and giving voice to the wide range of community concerns.
“In using persuasion as a strategy, religious leaders need to understand what specific contribution they can, and have to, make to overcome the menace of ML and insurgent of TF towards transforming public understanding, attitudes and standard setting,” the statement said.
The broad themes of the seminar include: The Role of Religious Leaders in Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing; Money laundering and terrorist financing risks and vulnerabilities associated with religious organisations; Religious Institutions as a tool for promotion of peaceful co-existence; Risk of terrorist abuse in non-profit organisations; Promoting tolerance and preventing violent extremism.
It said the training would be delivered by technical experts and GIABA faculty involving presentations, case studies, group work and sharing sessions.
As part of the programme, the GIABA would agree with the participants on actionable points to promote peaceful coexistence in particular and in general AML/CFT efforts.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
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