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KEY OUTCOMES OF THE 50TH ESAAMLG TASK FORCE OF SENIOR OFFICIALS' MEETINGS.
ESAAMLG held its 50th Task Force of Senior Officials, 25th Council of Ministers and 8th Public-Private Sector Dialogue (PPSD) during the Ethiopian Presidency. The meetings were held at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) – Africa Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 22–30 August 2025.
The Task Force Plenary was preceded by its working group meetings of the ESAAMLG Steering Committee, the Evaluations and Compliance Group, the Risk, Trends and Methods Group, the Budget, Finance and Audit Committee, the Technical Assistance and Training Coordination Forum, the Heads of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), and the Working Group on Risk, Compliance and Financial Inclusion. The Plenary and the working group meetings took place from 22–28 August 2025 and were followed by the Council Meeting on 29 August 2025. More than 800 delegates from ESAAMLG member countries, observers, and partners attended the sessions. The key outcomes of the meetings include:
Admitted DRC as an ESAAMLG member.
Admitted Norway and Afrexim Bank as ESAAMLG observers.
Authorized the Secretariat to sign an MoU with Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) as a regional partner.
Approved the publication of the Communication Rules and Procedures, set to strengthen confidentiality and information security of ESAAMLG meetings, on the ESAAMLG website.
Commended Tanzania for exiting the FATG ICRG process and noted the ICRG onsite visits to Mozambique and South Africa with their reports to be discussed the FATF October 2025 meetings.
Commended the African Development Bank (AfDB) for supporting ESAAMLG with a USD 5.2 million project to provide technical assistance to Burundi, Eritrea, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Sudan.
Launched the ESAAMLG FIU Information Exchange Platform (E-IEPS) and commended GIZ for its financial support for the establishment of the platform.
Commended the Mozambique FIU (GIFiM)'s admission for the Egmont Group as the 15th FIU in the ESAAMLG Region.
Noted the publication of the Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) of Eritrea. of Eritrea on the ESAAMLG website and approval of Follow-Up Reports with re-rating requests of Botswana, Eswatini, Rwanda and Seychelles.
Approved the 2026/27 ESAAMLG Annual Work Programme; 2026/27 Budget and the Audited Financial Statements for 2024/25 FY.
During the meetings, Rwanda assumed the ESAAMLG Presidency from Ethiopia for August 2025–September 2026. The priorities during Rwanda's presidency will be:
Enhancing ESAAMLG's visibility and voice in the international AML/CFT community.
Supporting the continuation of 3rd Round of Mutual Evaluations and 2nd Round Follow-Up measures.
Promote the maintaining of comprehensive statistics through the establishment of a Regional Data Repository system for ML/TF Case Statistics
Capacitating members on Risk-Based Supervision for DNFBPs and VASPs
The ESAAMLG also held its 8th ESAAMLG PPSD immediately after the Council’s meeting from 29-30 August 2025. The Meeting brought together more than 600 regulators, financial institutions, and capital markets experts under the slogan: "AML/CFT Opportunities and Challenges in Capital Markets in the ESAAMLG Region." Some of the issues under discussion were capital market risk, beneficial ownership and targeted financial sanctions, risk-based supervision, and entity-level risk analysis. The dialogue promoted regional cooperation, peer to peer learning, and actionable recommendations to strengthen AML/CFT regimes of the region's capital markets.
ESAAMLG would like to greatly appreciate the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for hosting the 50th Task Force of Senior Officials Meeting, the 25th Council of Ministers Meeting, and the 8th PPSD.
The next ESAAMLG Task Force meetings will be held from 23–27 March 2026 in Arusha, Tanzania.
