Eastern and Southern African countries are being urged to move beyond simply having anti-money laundering laws and institutions in place and prove that those systems are actually disrupting financial crime.
The call was made during the 2026 Annual Meetings of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), on September 2. The meeting is focused on strengthening anti-money laundering (AML), counter-terrorist financing (CFT) and counter-proliferation financing (CPF) systems across the region.
Under the theme, “From Technical Compliance to Demonstrable Outcome.” The meetings bring together officials from 22 member countries, alongside international partners including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.
Nick Barigye, the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, said technical compliance remains important, but should not be the final measure of how effectively countries are fighting financial crime.
“Results are ultimately what matters. Countries should assess their systems against three practical questions: Are illicit funds being disrupted? Are criminal assets being recovered? And are criminal networks being dismantled? That will mark a shift in how the effectiveness of anti-money laundering systems is being measured,” he said.
Money laundering is the process through which criminals attempt to disguise the origins of money obtained through illegal activities and make it appear legitimate.
Illicit money can move across banks, businesses, borders and complex ownership structures, making it difficult for authorities to identify who is behind it and where the money ultimately ends up.
That is why countries have spent years building financial intelligence units, strengthening laws, regulating financial institutions and improving cooperation between police, regulators, prosecutors and other agencies, according to officials.
A person can operate a company in one country, hold a bank account in another, move money through a third jurisdiction and use a complex ownership structure to conceal the individual who ultimately controls the assets.
Barigye said AML/CFT/CPF threats are increasingly complex, interconnected and cross-border, requiring a response that is equally coordinated across jurisdictions.
Data from the Financial Intelligence Center (FIC) shows that between 2019 and 2024, the most frequently reported economic and financial crimes included fraud (837 cases), embezzlement (734), human trafficking (162), illegal foreign exchange activities (160), and tax evasion (116 cases).
In terms of the value of money involved, embezzlement, fraud, and tax evasion ranked among the leading offenses.
Jeanne Pauline Gashumba, the Director General of Rwanda’s FIC, said the region must now be more honest about whether those systems are delivering results.
She said countries have made progress in establishing legal and institutional frameworks, but warned that “compliance on paper” cannot be treated as the end goal.
“The real test is whether financial intelligence is actionable, whether investigations lead to prosecutions, whether criminal assets are successfully recovered and whether networks financing terrorism or proliferation are disrupted,” she said.
“The rapid expansion of digital financial services adds another layer to the challenge. While mobile money, online banking and other digital services have widened financial inclusion and made transactions faster and easier, they have also created new channels that criminals can exploit.”
Gashumba said timely information exchange, mutual legal assistance, joint analysis, and cooperation between countries will help fully tackle the problem.
One practical issue being addressed is beneficial ownership: identifying the real people who ultimately own or control companies and other legal structures, making it easier for authorities to trace assets and detect financial crime.
ESAAMLG Executive Secretary Fikile Philda Zitha said the organization had signed a memorandum of understanding with Open Ownership to help member countries improve transparency in this area.
“The issue matters because criminals can hide behind companies or complicated ownership structures, making it difficult for investigators to establish who is actually benefiting from an asset or transaction,” she said.
“Better beneficial-ownership information can help investigators look beyond the names appearing on company documents and identify the individual who ultimately owns or controls the structure. For law enforcement, that can be the difference between identifying a suspicious company and identifying the person behind it.”
