HomeGeneral
General
False

No, South Africa has not exited FATF grey list as claimed by Dino Melaye

Nurudeen Akewushola
Nurudeen Akewushola
Reading Time: 2 min.
dino_melaye
Dino Melaye.

Share

See the sources for this fact-check

FORMER Nigerian lawmaker, Dino Melaye, has claimed that Nigeria and South Africa were placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list at the same time, but while South Africa has exited, Nigeria remains listed.

Melaye who made the claim while speaking on Arise TV’s prime time said :

“Nigeria was listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). We are on what is called the grey list today. And that is having a negative concomitant effect on the economy. Any country that is on the grey list of FATF, definitely it will affect your direct foreign investment, and it will affect your banking activities across the globe. It is going to have a resultant negative effect on the economy. Nigeria and south africa went into the grey list at the same time. South Africa carried out a lot of reforms, and today they are out of the grey list, but Nigeria is still on the grey list.”

CLAIM

South Africa has exited the FATF grey list while Nigeria remains on it.

THE FINDINGS

Findings by The FactCheckHub show the claim is FALSE.

The FATF greylist denotes countries that do not meet the FATF’s minimum standards for Effective anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, but are cooperating with the organisation to reach those benchmarks. These countries are put under increased economic supervision and regulation.

READ : Dino Melaye shares misleading video of Tobi Amusan at Paris 2024 Olympics

Nigeria and South Africa were both placed on the FATF “jurisdictions under increased monitoring” list in February 2023. This means the country has committed to resolving swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring. This list is often externally referred to as the “grey list”.

FATF’s public statements and follow-up documents make clear that both countries remained on the list through 2025 while they worked to fix strategic deficiencies in their anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing frameworks. 

Nigeria has made a series of reforms cited by FATF and other observers, including the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Customer Due Diligence regulation (2023), updates to Bureau de Change rules, and new measures on non-profit organisations, and FATF approved Nigeria’s fifth progress report on 21 February 2025. However, FATF explicitly said Nigeria would remain on the list pending on-site verification of the effectiveness of those reforms. 

South Africa likewise completed major reforms. At its June 2025 plenary, FATF determined South Africa had substantially completed its action plan and warranted an on-site assessment to verify implementation. South Africa’s National Treasury and FATF documents stated that, following that determination, an on-site visit would be scheduled and that delisting would only follow a successful verification. 

This means South Africa is still awaiting a final on-site visit before removal from the list. 

The on-site visit will take place before the next FATF plenary. If the outcome of the visit is positive, the FATF will delist South Africa from the grey list at its next plenary in October.

The visit will involve intensive engagements with public and private sector stakeholders to confirm that the country’s AML/CFT reforms are working in practice. 

This shows that, contrary to Melaye’s statement, both Nigeria and South Africa remain on the FATF grey list.

VERDICT

Senator Dino Melaye’s statement that South Africa had exited while Nigeria remained listed is therefore inaccurate. As of September 2025, neither country had been formally removed by FATF. South Africa was closer to delisting after completing reforms and undergoing an on-site assessment, but an official removal required FATF’s plenary decision.

+ posts

Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here


Most Read

Recent Checks

Useful Links

Fact-Checks

Contact

info@factcheckhub.com

+234 903 078 5265

Follow us

Please note that the FactCheckHub has not obtained any right from the authors or copyright owners of all third-party contents from embedded links and shall incur no liability in this regard.

Copyright © 2025 FactCheckHub. All rights reserved..