South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique and Burkina Faso have been removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s list of financial crimes.
Published October 24, 2025
The global money laundering watchdog has removed South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique and Burkina Faso from its “grey list” of countries subject to increased surveillance.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the France-based financial crimes watchdog, announced on Friday that it would exclude four countries following “successful field visits” that showed “positive progress” in addressing shortcomings within agreed deadlines.
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The FATF maintains a “gray” and “black” list of countries it identifies as not meeting its standards. The group considers countries on its gray list to be countries that have “strategic deficiencies” in their anti-money laundering efforts but are still working with organizations to tackle the problem.
FATF President Elisa de Anda Madrazo said the removal of the four was “a positive story for the African continent”.
He said South Africa has modernized its tools to detect money laundering and terrorist financing, while Nigeria has strengthened coordination between government agencies, Mozambique has increased the sharing of financial information and Burkina Faso has strengthened oversight of financial institutions.
Nigeria and South Africa were added to the list in 2023, followed by Mozambique in 2022 and Burkina Faso in 2021.
Officials from the four countries exempted from the organization’s increased scrutiny welcomed the decision.
Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the delisting was a “major milestone in Nigeria’s journey towards economic reform, institutional soundness and global trust,” while the country’s Financial Intelligence Service said separately that the country had “worked decisively on a 19-point action plan” to demonstrate its commitment to improvement.
South African Revenue Service Commissioner Edward Kieswetter also welcomed the update, but said: “Removal of gray listing is not a goal, but a milestone on a long-term journey towards building a strong and resilient financial ecosystem.”
The leaders of Mozambique and Burkina Faso had no immediate comment, but Mozambican authorities had expressed optimism about his removal for months.
In July, Finance Minister Carla Rubeira said Mozambique was “not just working to get off the gray list, but working to ensure that when the FATF makes its assessment in 2030, the situation in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is completely different from the one we found ourselves in in 2021,” MZ News reported at the time.
More than 200 countries around the world have pledged to follow FATF standards for reviewing efforts to tackle money laundering, terrorist financing, and arms financing.
The FATF blacklist or “high risk” list consists of Iran, Myanmar and North Korea.
