Deputy Minister of Finance II, Isata Marah, has called for stronger coordination among national institutions to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen Sierra Leone’s efforts to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.
She made the call while opening a three-day stakeholder engagement on the proposed consolidated Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) database, organised by the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) in partnership with the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).
The engagement, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel under the theme “From Fragmented Information to Coordinated Intelligence,” aims to improve information sharing among institutions responsible for preventing and detecting financial crimes.
Marah said Africa loses an estimated US$88.6 billion annually to illicit financial flows, warning that such losses undermine economic development by depriving countries of resources needed for essential services, including education, healthcare and infrastructure.
She noted that although Sierra Leone’s institutions hold important financial records, the information remains fragmented across different systems, limiting the ability of authorities to identify suspicious transactions and respond promptly to financial crime risks.
She said the proposed database would help address these gaps by improving information sharing, enabling earlier risk detection and supporting faster, more coordinated action among relevant institutions.
The Deputy Minister stressed that the initiative must be supported by strong governance arrangements, adequate technical capacity and sustainable financing. She also underscored the importance of lawful data access, information security, reliable data management, audit trails and the protection of individual rights.
According to Marah, the effectiveness of the database will depend not only on technology but also on institutional accountability, skilled personnel and clear procedures for managing and sharing sensitive information.
She further described financial integrity as essential to domestic revenue mobilisation, investor confidence and macroeconomic stability, noting that stronger measures against illicit financial flows would support Sierra Leone’s broader economic and security objectives.
Marah urged participants to use the engagement to establish a common vision for the database and agree on a governance framework, technical standards, data protection measures, capacity-building priorities, a financing strategy and a system for monitoring implementation.
She commended the FIA and GIABA for organising the engagement and called on participating institutions to move beyond fragmented information systems towards coordinated intelligence and practical action.
She formally declared the three-day stakeholder engagement open, expressing confidence that stronger institutional collaboration would enhance Sierra Leone’s capacity to prevent financial crime and protect its economic interests.
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