News

President Advocate Duma Gideon Boko has called for stronger measures to combat corruption, financial impropriety and illicit financial flows. The President warned that the challenges threatened the country’s economic growth and ability to attract foreign investment. He was speaking at a two-day Judicial Colloquium on Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation Financing, held in Gaborone from the 25th to the 26th of February 2025.

The Colloquium, hosted by the University of Botswana (UB) through its Institute for Combating Illicit Financial Flows, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and the Administration of Justice, was aimed at equipping judicial officers with the necessary expertise to effectively handle financial crimes.

President Boko underscored the need for a robust legal framework to detect, investigate and prosecute financial crimes to ensure that the proceeds of corruption were recovered and returned to the public. He noted that while foreign direct investment was critical to economic development, Botswana's ability to attract investors hinged on its success in tackling corruption and safeguarding public resources.

Echoing the President’s sentiments, UB Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Norris, highlighted the University’s growing role in research and training on financial crimes. Professor Norris stated that the colloquium was part of UB’s broader vision to position itself as a leading institution in financial crime prevention both in Botswana and across Africa. The initiative, he added, was aligned with the University’s ongoing transformation to become a more impactful and relevant institution as a High-Performance Organisation (HPO).

The colloquium brought together justices of the Court of Appeal, retired judges, anti-money laundering experts and academics to discuss the judiciary’s role in enforcing the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. The discussions were particularly critical as Botswana prepares for its third-round Mutual Evaluation scheduled for June/July 2027. The assessment will examine the judiciary’s effectiveness in prosecuting financial crimes, imposing appropriate sanctions and recovering illicit assets.

The Institute for Combating Illicit Financial flows has been set up to build capacity in enhancing the quality of anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing implementation programmes.