The media has been urged to build and strengthen its capacity to effectively support the public advocacy campaign against money laundering and terrorist financing in the country.
Mr Sean Henry, Deputy Manager at the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), who made the call, said journalists and other media practitioners needed to keep themselves abreast with the requisite information and skills to be able to generate, discuss and analyze issues of money laundering and terrorism financing in their reportage.
He was speaking at a day’s training workshop on money laundering and terrorism financing for some selected journalists and media practitioners from the Ashanti region, in Kumasi.
It was organized by FIC as part of efforts to engage key stakeholders on the Financial Intelligence Act 2020 (Act 1044) and solicit their support and involvement fighting money laundering and other financial supports to terrorists and other criminals in the West Africa sub-region.
Mr Henry said the emerging risk of terrorism financing was becoming frightening in society and there was the need to sensitise the public to the phenomenon and seek their support to fight it.
He said FIC was part of a global network seeking to access timely information on the activities of criminals trying to transcend national borders to carry out nefarious activities.
Mr Henry said it was time for inclusive actions to stop the activities of the criminals and called for an effective partnerships and collaborations with the media to ensure that the public received relevant and appropriate information to be able to report suspected activities to the appropriate security agencies for action.
He called on the people in communities to report any suspected activities and actions of criminals in their areas to the appropriate quarters for action.
Mr Seth Nana Amoako, Head of Compliance at FIC, urged the participants to use the knowledge acquired as guidelines in their professional fields of work.
He said the Centre since its establishment, had collaborated with the government through the Ministry of Finance and other international organizations to develop and implement action plans that had helped to strengthen existing legislations and enhanced the capacities of stakeholders and staff to identify, report and analyze suspicious transactions and acts.
