40 firms sanctioned over anti-money laundering training plans - NAICOM

Chuks Udo Okonta

About 40 insurance firms were last year sanctioned by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) over failure to submit their training plans on Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) on time, Inspen has learnt.

The Assistant Director Inspectorate NAICOM, Sam Onyeka, who disclosed this in an interview, said the commission takes the issue of anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism compliance seriously, adding that measures that would enable all the operators to have a harmonised reporting system has been put in place.

He said: "NAICOM takes the issue of anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism compliance seriously, many companies were sanctioned for failure to submit their training plans on time as required. About 40 companies were sanctioned last year for failing to send in their training plans as required.

"Basically we have three types of reports - suspicious, currency and foreign transactions. Before now, the reporting system has not been uniform, some people report using information technology platforms while others report using copy versions. But now, we want to synchronise it, we want everybody to come on the information technology platform."

He said NAICOM would continue to improve on the level of anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism compliance in collaboration with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).