Eastern and Southern African countries are being urged to move beyond having anti-money laundering laws and institutions in place and demonstrate that their 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, which are focused on strengthening anti-money laundering (AML), counter-terrorist financing (CFT) and counter-proliferation financing (CPF) systems across the region. ALSO READ: 8 things to know about new law on money laundering and terrorism financing Held 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), World Bank and 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?” he said. He said answering those questions would mark a shift in how the effectiveness of anti-money laundering systems is measured. Money laundering is the process through which criminals disguise the origins of money obtained through illegal activities to make it appear legitimate. ALSO READ: NGOs pledge stronger safeguards against money laundering, terrorism financing 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. To address the problem, countries have spent years developing financial intelligence units, strengthening laws, regulating financial institutions and improving cooperation among police, regulators, prosecutors and other agencies. A person, for example, 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 who ultimately controls the assets. Barigye said AML, CFT and CPF threats are becoming increasingly complex, interconnected and cross-border, requiring a response that is equally coordinated across jurisdictions. Data from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) shows that between 2019 and 2024, the most frequently reported economic and financial crimes included fraud, with 837 cases; embezzlement, with 734; human trafficking, with 162; illegal foreign exchange activities, with 160; and tax evasion, with 116 cases. In terms of the value of money involved, embezzlement, fraud and tax evasion ranked among the leading offences. Jeanne Pauline Gashumba, the Director General of Rwanda’s FIC, said the region must now be more candid about whether the systems put in place are delivering tangible results. She said countries had made progress in establishing legal and institutional frameworks, but warned that “compliance on paper” could not 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. Gashumba said the rapid expansion of digital financial services had added another layer to the challenge. While mobile money, online banking and other digital services have expanded financial inclusion and made transactions faster and easier, she said they have also created new channels that criminals can exploit. She said timely information exchange, mutual legal assistance, joint analysis and cooperation among countries would be critical to tackling the problem. One of the practical issues being addressed is beneficial ownership—identifying the individuals who ultimately own or control companies and other legal structures. This can make it easier for authorities to trace assets and detect financial crime. ESAAMLG Executive Secretary Fikile Philda Zitha said the organisation had signed a memorandum of understanding with Open Ownership to help member countries improve transparency in beneficial ownership. “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, she added, can help investigators look beyond the names appearing on company documents and identify the individuals who ultimately own or control a structure. “For law enforcement, that can be the difference between identifying a suspicious company and identifying the person behind it,” she said.
