Vice President Dr. Benjamin Bol Mel delivers his welcoming speech at ABMC Garden in Juba, following his swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. - Credit: Eye Radio/Lou Nelson

JUBA, (Eye Radio) – Vice President for Economic Cluster Dr. Benjamin Bol Mel has tasked the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) with aligning the country with international standards and best practices in combating money laundering and terrorism funding, his office said.

The initiative is aimed to remove South Sudan from the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF)’s grey list.

As of February 2025, South Sudan is listed among 14 African countries on the grey list for having weak measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, according to two reports from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The FATF is an independent inter-governmental body that sets global policies to safeguard the financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing.

Other African nations on the gray list include Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, DR Congo, Tanzania, and Algeria, among others.

On Friday, Vice President Dr. Bol Mel reportedly directed the FIU to align the country with international standards and best practices through cooperation and engagement with the global community.

He emphasized that failure to comply with AML/CFT policies could result in both administrative penalties and criminal charges, particularly for illicit activities such as holding cash at home, tax evasion, smuggling cash across borders, and engaging in black-market forex trading.

“His Excellency, the Vice President of the Economic Cluster, has tasked the FIU with aligning the nation with international standards through international cooperation,” said press secretary Oyiti Ajawain.

“He warned that non-compliance with AML/CFT regulations would lead to administrative penalties and criminal charges. This includes illicit activities like cash holding at home, tax evasion, smuggling cash across borders, and black-market forex trading.”

The Vice President expressed his commitment to support the Financial Intelligence in achieving the removal of South Sudan from international financial grey list.

“His Excellency VP, is committed to supporting the FIU to ensure the effective implementation of this roadmap and I believe that South Sudan will come out from the grey list because we have been facing a lot of challenges.”

“But with this support and the political will from our government and the assurance that was given by His Excellency, the Vice President, I believe South Sudan financial system is going to be aligned to the international standard very soon.”

South Sudan has been ranked the most corrupt among 180 countries in the world having scored the lowest index to beat Somalia to the position, according to a global corruption index released on February 2025.

The 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) indicates that public sector corruption is a dangerous problem in every part of the world, but added that change for the better is happening in many countries.