Rwanda approves new Financial Intelligence Centre to fight money laundering

A cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame on Friday, August 15 has approved the structure of the newly created Financial Intelligence Centre, according to a news report by The New Times.

The new center will strengthen Rwanda's capacity to prevent, combat, and criminalize money laundering and terror financing.

Criminals make large amounts of money through illegal activities, such as drug trafficking or terrorist funding with the money appearing to have come from a legitimate source.

Money launderers deploy smart techniques and pass through complex sequences of banking transfers or commercial transactions, which cannot be easily detected or traced.

Some of that money is laundered inside the country or sent abroad, according to the information from the National Public Prosecutor Authority (NPPA).

"When we say money laundering, we include financial crimes such as embezzlement, corruption, and tax evasion," a source from NPPA said.

The same source, who preferred anonymity lamented the difficulty in getting information where cross-border crimes are involved.

Rwanda has, for the past five years, sent requests to countries like Nigeria, Uganda, Poland, the USA, Spain, Central Africa Republic, and Canada to recover the money they think belongs to the country.

Only two requests have been responded to, according to NPPA, reflecting the reluctance of some states to cooperate.