An action plan by Namibia’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) addressed 13 strategic deficiencies related to the ineffectiveness of the country’s antimoney laundering (AML), counterterrorism financing frameworks (CFT) and Countering Proliferation Financing (CPF).
These deficiencies have to be remedied within various set timelines, which expire in May 2026.
This is according to Bryan Eiseb, director of the FIC.
FIC is operationally independent and autonomous with administrative support from the Bank of Namibia.
The FIC is responsible for administering Namibia’s Financial Intelligence Act (FIA) to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing activities.
Eiseb made these remarks in the FIC’s recently released annual report for 2024/25.
“From an operational perspective, the FIC continued to ensure the timely and effective analysis of various suspicious transactions and suspicious activity reports, conduct various strategic analyses, and issue trends and typology reports to national AML/CFT/CPF stakeholders such as the Namibian Police.
“In addition, the FIC provided support to agencies such as the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Namibian Police and the Namibia Revenue Agency, which is responsible for investigating money laundering and conducting complex financial crimes investigations,” he stated.
“Collectively, the review period saw 981 cautions issued and administrative actions taken. This number is by far the highest compared with all the previous years. It is underpinned by the highest number of positive changes in the compliance behaviour of reporting entities,” Eiseb added.
He continued that as part of its mandate, the FIC continued to supervise and monitor various institutions’ compliance with the FIA, including banks and DNFBPs (Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions). The FIC also provided awareness and capacity-building training and workshops to various stakeholders to strengthen public-private partnerships in preventing and combating money laundering and associated crimes, as well as reporting standards of accountable and reporting institutions.
These actions come as a result of Namibia infamously being added to the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring in February 2024, more commonly known as the grey list, by the FATF.
The FATF serves as the global watchdog for money laundering and terrorist financing.
The greylisting came on the back of an amendment of Namibia’s FIA, which established the FIC as an operationally independent entity.
More recently, the European Commission (EC) last week designated Namibia as a high-risk jurisdiction for antimoney laundering and counterterrorism financing frameworks.
The EC updated the European Union (EU) list of high-risk jurisdictions on 10 June, placing Namibia alongside high-risk jurisdictions such as Algeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Monaco, Nepal and Venezuela.
“These two events predominantly shaped the review period (annual report), as the FIC found itself oscillating between coordinating the FATF Action Plan to ensure the remediation of strategic deficiencies and metamorphosing into an autonomous financial intelligence unit,” Eiseb stated.
He said that as part of its mandate to ensure compliance with the FIA, the FIC generally holds hands with supervised entities to enhance internal controls over a given period.
Sanctions are often the last resort and are typically administered when everything else has failed and risk exposure is not duly mitigated.
FIC’s board chairperson Charmaine van der Westhuizen in an annual report noted that the centre’s strategic plan (2025-2028) outlines a clear vision and practical goals to enhance the ability to combat money laundering, terrorism financing, proliferation financing and other illicit financial activities.
“The strategy aims to foster a high-performance culture by focusing on FIC staff development, succession planning and the improvement of institutional capacity. The FIC will remain committed to detecting and disrupting financial crimes by refining its analytical capabilities, enhancing cooperation with law enforcement and other authorities, and ensuring compliance with international standards,” Van der Westhuizen stated.
She added that technology and innovation are pivotal to the FIC’s strategy, with plans to transform its capabilities through automation and digitisation.
– ebrandt@nepc.com.na