The European Commission added Saudi Arabia, Panama, Nigeria and twenty other countries to a blacklist of nations that pose a threat because of lax controls on terrorism financing and money laundering.
The follows a crackdown against money laundering after several scandals hit EU banks in recent months. But it has triggered criticism from several EU states worried about their economic relations with the listed states, notably Saudi Arabia.
Inclusion in this list indicates reputational damage to the country and further complicates financial relations with the EU. This means that banks in the EU will have will have to carry out additional checks on payments involving entities from listed jurisdictions.
In total 23 jurisdictions are listed. They are Afghanistan, American Samoa, the Bahamas, Botswana, North Korea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guam, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, US Virgin Islands and Yemen.
ISAAC ANYAOGU
Isaac Anyaogu is an Assistant editor and head of the energy and environment desk. He is an award-winning journalist who has written hundreds of reports on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, energy and environmental policies, regulation and climate change impacts in Africa. He was part of a journalist team that investigated lead acid pollution by an Indian recycler in Nigeria and won the international prize - Fetisov Journalism award in 2020.
Mr Anyaogu joined BusinessDay in January 2016 as a multimedia content producer on the energy desk and rose to head the desk in October 2020 after several ground breaking stories and multiple award wining stories. His reporting covers start-ups, companies and markets, financing and regulatory policies in the power sector, oil and gas, renewable energy and environmental sectors
He has covered the Niger Delta crises, and corruption in NIgeria’s petroleum product imports.
He left the Audit and Consulting firm, OR&C Consultants in 2015 after three years to write for BusinessDay and his background working with financial statements, audit reports and tax consulting assignments significantly benefited his reporting.
Mr Anyaogu studied mass communications and Media Studies and has attended several training programmes in Ghana, South Africa and the United States
