The President of the Republic, Mr. Ismail Omar Guelleh, held a high-level meeting yesterday, Sunday, the 4th of February, with the aim of mutual assessment of our country in the Financial Action Task Force for the Middle East and North Africa, a sub-regional group affiliated with the Financial Action Task Force concerned with money laundering. Money and terrorist financing, whose experts will be on a mission to Djibouti from February 18 to March 6, 2024.
The assessment mission is scheduled to issue a series of observations and recommendations related to compliance with the legal and operational framework to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing in our country, in light of the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force.
In this context, the team of experts expected to arrive in Djibouti will hold meetings with the authorities and public departments concerned with this issue, in addition to private sector operators.
On this occasion, the President of the Republic pointed out the strategic importance of our country’s success in this mutual evaluation of its normative and institutional framework to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing, adding, “The effective implementation of the FATF recommendations is necessary to strengthen our framework to combat these threats and ensure the financial sustainability of our country. “It constitutes an additional and decisive step in our country’s ongoing quest to transform into a regional financial center.”
  From this standpoint, President Guelleh called on all stakeholders to mobilize in a concerted and cohesive manner to highlight the effectiveness of our national system and to conduct this assessment in good conditions, within the framework of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Strategy that will be considered and approved by the Council of Ministers soon.
The Prime Minister and a group of ministers and high-level officials participated in the aforementioned meeting.