Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the divers and facilitators of money laundering in Ethiopia. Specifically, it looks at the risk factors that existed in the country’s economic and political system, which provide an appealing environment for money laundering to grow.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study relies on primary data generated from interviewees drawn from the National Bank of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Financial Intelligence Center, Ethiopian Customs Commission, selected financial institutions and certain non-financial businesses and professions and law enforcement agencies, as well as secondary data from government reports, media press, statutes and other online and offline sources.

Findings

This study finds that the risk factors for the growth of money laundering in Ethiopia are highly reliant on the country’s economic and political system. Accordingly, the nature of Ethiopia’s economy, which is cash-intensive, loosely regulated economic growth and the raise associated criminality, the development of underground banking activities, scarcity of foreign currency reserves and the existence of societal demand for illicit goods and services are all risk factors for the growth of money laundering. The raise of an elite cartel model type of systematic corruption, limited institutional capacity to prevent and suppress money laundering and the absence of a national identity card system are also identified as risk factors for the rife of money laundering in Ethiopia. Moreover, the geopolitical location of the country, its porous borders, limited cross-border cooperation and information sharing add further fuel to the vulnerability of the country to money laundering and associated predicate offense.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper provides a first-of-its-kind analytical perspective on the risk factors for the raise of money laundering in Ethiopia.

中文翻译：

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为什么埃塞俄比亚会滋生洗钱活动？

目的

本文的目的是研究埃塞俄比亚洗钱活动的发起者和推动者。具体而言，它着眼于该国经济和政治体系中存在的风险因素，这些因素为洗钱活动的发展提供了诱人的环境。

设计/方法/途径

这项定性研究依赖于来自埃塞俄比亚国家银行、埃塞俄比亚金融情报中心、埃塞俄比亚海关委员会、选定的金融机构和某些非金融企业和专业以及执法机构的受访者生成的主要数据，以及来自政府的二手数据报告、媒体新闻、法规和其他线上和线下资源。

发现

这项研究发现，埃塞俄比亚洗钱活动增长的风险因素高度依赖于该国的经济和政治制度。因此，埃塞俄比亚经济的特点是现金密集型、监管松散的经济增长和相关犯罪活动的增加、地下银行活动的发展、外汇储备稀缺以及社会对非法商品和服务的需求的存在都存在风险洗钱活动增长的因素。精英卡特尔模式系统性腐败的兴起、防止和打击洗钱的机构能力有限以及国家身份证制度的缺失也被确定为埃塞俄比亚洗钱猖獗的风险因素。此外，该国的地缘政治位置、漏洞百出的边界，

原创性/价值

据作者所知，本文首次就埃塞俄比亚洗钱活动的风险因素提供了同类分析视角。