Luanda: The Angolan government continues to work within the national legal framework to remove the country from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2026, the Secretary of State for Justice, Osvaldo Amaro, announced on Thursday in Luanda. Since October 2024, Angola has been part of the group of countries under enhanced monitoring, known as the "FATF Grey List," due to shortcomings in its system for preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.
According to Angola Press News Agency, the major challenge is to remove the country from this undesirable list after the presentation of the next report on compliance with the obligations of that institution, to be held in January 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal. Speaking to the press at the end of a meeting of the Supervisory Committee of the Financial Information Unit (UIF), the Secretary of State said Angola is making significant progress in the legal framework of the national financial system, with a view to removing the country from the aforementioned list.
The official stated that specific amendments are underway to the Law on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, since the FATF considers that there are some shortcomings that need to be eliminated. With this, he stressed, Angola will ensure that the legal framework can provide for autonomous punishment of money laundering crimes.
Alongside these and other advances, he emphasized that the country is making some improvements in the UIF's legal framework, which plays a central role in the operation and prevention of money laundering. The Secretary of State emphasized that several training and capacity-building actions are underway for technicians to implement the operational improvements needed in the Angolan financial system.
Gilberto Capa§a, director of the Financial Information Unit, on his turn, reiterated that Angola is committed to completing the process that will allow the country to be removed from the grey list. He stressed that the country needs to increase investigations, prosecutions, and convictions for money laundering, as well as begin to identify and prosecute autonomous money laundering.
