Namibia Is Off the FATF Grey List. Now What?
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You spent two years tightening your AML processes, updating client due diligence, and explaining grey list implications to nervous clients. The good news: it worked.
Namibia has officially been removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. The FATF confirmed this at its June 2026 plenary meeting, following an on-site assessment in Windhoek on 23 and 24 April 2026.
How Namibia got here
Namibia was added to the grey list on 23 February 2024 after the FATF identified 13 strategic deficiencies in the country's anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and counter-proliferation financing (AML/CFT/CPF) framework. The country was given a deadline of May 2026 to fix them.
Between July 2024 and November 2025, the National Focal Committee, led by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), submitted five progress reports to the FATF, one voluntary and four compulsory. The FATF concluded that Namibia had largely addressed all 13 action items ahead of the May 2026 deadline and recommended the country for the on-site assessment that led to removal.
Finance Minister Ericah Shafudah acknowledged the collective effort of government institutions involved in the process.
As covered in the earlier Accounting Weekly analysis of the greylisting, Namibia's FATF Greylisting: Implications and Actions for Financial Compliance, the burden of reform fell heavily on practitioners, who had to adjust due diligence procedures, tighten compliance documentation, and keep up with changing requirements.
What this means for Namibian accountants
Removal from the grey list does not mean you can relax your AML/CFT procedures. The frameworks you built over the past two years are now permanent features of how you practise. Enhanced due diligence, beneficial ownership verification, and proper record-keeping remain legal obligations, regardless of grey list status.
What changes is the perception risk around Namibia in cross-border transactions. International counterparties and correspondent banks will no longer automatically flag Namibian entities for elevated scrutiny. For your clients doing business across borders, this is a practical improvement.
Trust administration is one area to watch closely. As noted in the recent Namibian trust amendments: where things stand, clean trust data was part of Namibia's push to meet FATF requirements. Those obligations remain, and the Master of the High Court's electronic system is still being rolled out.
What to do now
Use this moment as a compliance reset. Review your AML/CFT policies and confirm they reflect the updated frameworks that got Namibia off the list. If you updated procedures during the grey list period but never formally documented them, document them now. And if any of your clients assumed that removal from the grey list means their compliance obligations have eased, correct that assumption quickly.
This is the standard now. The work you did to get here is the work you keep doing.
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Source Article: Windhoek Observer