Mozambique’s Financial Intelligence Office (GIFiM) has announced plans to strengthen supervision of economic sectors considered vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing, with a particular focus on real estate, casinos, vehicle trading, and legal and accounting services. The initiative aims to consolidate the progress Mozambique has made in combating financial crime and to prevent a return to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.

The announcement was made on Monday (2) at the opening of a week-long regional workshop on risk-based supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions, held in Maputo with representatives from 22 countries across Southern and Eastern Africa, according to Lusa.

Speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Albertina Fruquia, stressed the need to intensify oversight mechanisms outside the banking system, warning that criminal networks seek to exploit vulnerabilities in other sectors of the economy as financial institutions strengthen their own prevention measures. “Sectors such as real estate, casinos, trade in precious stones and metals, and legal services provided by lawyers, auditors and accountants therefore become the front lines of our defence strategy,” she said.

The initiative, supported by experts from FATF and the World Bank, aims to build the technical capacity of regulators and supervisors to identify activities, services, products and entities with the greatest exposure to the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Alberto Cangela Júnior, Director of Central Studies and Cooperation Services at GIFiM, said the training would allow traditional inspection methods to be replaced by an approach based on assessing the risks associated with different economic activities. “Previously, supervision was carried out on a random basis; now there is a need to carry out a risk assessment and identify entities that represent a high risk,” he explained, adding that the event includes both theoretical and practical components as well as the sharing of experiences among participating countries.

In Mozambique, GIFiM already oversees real estate activities and the buying and reselling of vehicles as part of efforts to prevent and combat money laundering, given that these sectors lack dedicated supervisory bodies for such matters. The tightening of oversight comes as the country seeks to consolidate its standing in the international financial system, following its removal from the FATF grey list in October 2025 after three years of enhanced monitoring.

According to Alberto Cangela Júnior, Mozambique is expected to face a new international evaluation in 2030, with the preparatory process set to begin in 2028, making it essential that prevention and oversight mechanisms are fully operational by then. “By then we need to have all the mechanisms in place, so that the 2030 evaluation can take place with a level of compliance from the country and we do not run the risk of returning to the grey list,” he said.

“By then we need to have all the mechanisms in place, so that the 2030 evaluation can take place with a level of compliance from the country and we do not run the risk of returning to the grey list.” — Alberto Cangela Júnior, Director of Central Studies and Cooperation Services, GIFiM.

Cangela Júnior further underlined that entities such as the Bar Association should strengthen their supervisory capacity, with a view to identifying the risks associated with the provision of legal services and monitoring activities considered most vulnerable to the use of funds of illicit origin.

The call for greater oversight is supported by a report released by GIFiM in October, which identified weaknesses in control mechanisms within the real estate sector, including deficiencies in the reporting of suspicious transactions and difficulties in coordination among responsible authorities.

As reported by Diário Económico, only 234 of the 851 real estate entities identified as active in 2025 were registered with the body, highlighting significant gaps in the reach of existing supervisory mechanisms. The report also identified suspected placement of funds of illicit origin in the real estate sector, valued at approximately 78.2 million euros, over the period from January 2021 to November 2025.

In response to these findings, GIFiM recommended strengthening the monitoring of real estate transactions, adopting risk-based supervision mechanisms, and improving information sharing among competent authorities. These measures are intended to enhance the capacity to identify and prevent suspicious financial transactions, reinforcing compliance with international anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards, as Mozambique prepares for its next FATF evaluation.