The Minister of Finance and Public Enterprises, Ipumbu Shiimi, has tabled a bill in parliament aimed at bolstering Namibia's financial intelligence capabilities and addressing the shortcomings identified in the country's recent mutual evaluation report.

The assessment report, carried out by the Eastern and Southern African Anti-Money Laundering Group and the Financial Action Task Force, evaluated Namibia's adherence to international standards in combating money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation.

"This bill aims to, among other things, remove provisions requiring companies, both corporations and trusts, to submit certain information to the register of companies and close corporations. This step is taken to avoid duplication with legislation governing companies, close cooperation, and trusts. The bill will also secure the independence and autonomy of the Financial Intelligence Centre, establish the board of the centre, define its powers and functions, and include certain persons as members of the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Council. Additionally, the bill will amend the functions of the country to require accountable institutions to identify beneficiaries and beneficial owners of life insurance policies and other investment-related policies."

Shiimi recognised the considerable advancements Namibia has achieved in terms of technical compliance since the previous evaluation was conducted in 2005.

Nonetheless, he underscored the need for further enhancements, particularly in bolstering the overall effectiveness of the national anti-money laundering and terrorism financing policy and legislative framework.

However, Shiimi says that while progress has been made, there is still room for improvement to ensure a more robust and efficient system to combat these financial crimes.

"Namibia was informed that it has met the criteria for the FATF international cooperation review and has entered a 12-month observation period, which will end at the close of the FATF plenary in October. If Namibia fails to demonstrate sufficient progress at the end of the 12-month observation period, the country may be relisted by FATF, which is something Namibia should avoid at all costs."

The minister emphasised how critical it is that Namibia rectify the identified deficiencies to prevent potential grey-listing by the FATF.

This is particularly significant in light of recent developments such as the Green Hydrogen Agreement and gas discoveries.