Tourism financing: MINFI boss calls for synergy to pull Cameroon out of UN black blook.

Minister Motaze disclosed yesterday that the United Nations Security Council, has for long classified Cameroon as a terrorism financing nation, because of lapses in closing loopholes that criminals use to take advantage of and transfer money to terrorist groups.

He expressed dismay that in the past, government’s attention has been focused only on banks and other financial institutions “because of the erroneous believe that it is only through these institutions that funds could be channeled to terrorist groups whereas, even NGOs are also being used by unscrupulous individuals to channel such funds”.

He has called on promoters of NGOs to exercise greater vigilance as to where they source for their funding and what projects they direct such funding to.

The minister accepted that NGOs play a vital role in the society as there work to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable group of persons in the nation, but warned that some of these organisations have, knowingly or unknowingly channeled money to terrorists who use such funds to endanger both national security and stability of the nation.

He drew attention to persistent security threats from the Boko Haram terrorist sect in some parts of the Far North Region; separatist groups wrecking mayhem in the North West and South West regions of the country; as well as influx of displaced persons from war-torn Central African Republic, CAR, which the minister said the government counts as among the sources of security threats that are causing Cameroon untold wastage of both human and financial resources.

Participants with Minister Motaze after workshop opening

He added that even the United Nations recognises illegal funding of terrorist activities as a source of persistent insecurity that is threatening global stability.

The minister was corroborated by the representative of the National Agency for Financial Investigation, ANIF, who asserted that there is so much dirty money still circulating or passing through Cameroon, which justifies why the UN Security Council continues to maintain Cameroon in its black book.

He asserted that even at the level of ANIF, the justice department, the police, and other control institutions in the country, there are still obvious lapses that make it easy for dirty money to be passed on, to finance terrorist activities.

Minister Motaze, however, praised the efforts being made at the level of the Ministry of Territorial Administration, MINAT, the security services, ANIF and even some NGOs to clean the image of the country as far as terrorism financing is concerned.

He has urged the organisations not to rest on their laurels, but use the workshop to come up with realistic actions that could make meaningful input into the report the UN Security Council expects from Cameroon as to what is being done to stop illegal flow of dirty money within the territory to finance terrorism.

The said report, the minister announced, is due to be turned in at the UN Security Council in the month of September this year.