The Action Group against Money Laundering in Central Africa (GABAC) published an update on a jointly organised regional awareness forum with SecFin Africa, an European Union regional programme against financial crime, aimed at strengthening compliance by Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing and proliferation financing (AML/CFT/PF) requirements in Central Africa. The initiative prioritised DNFBPs, particularly independent legal professionals, which GABAC considers a weak link in the preventive chain following its second cycle of mutual evaluations. Held in Brazzaville from 10 to 12 December 2025 under the patronage of the Republic of the Congo’s Minister of Finance, the forum brought together around 50 participants mainly from professional bodies in GABAC member and associate states. The programme identified DNFBP-specific legal obligations, examined practical and environmental constraints to implementing preventive measures, analysed tensions between AML/CFT duties and professional ethics, assessed the supervisory role of self-regulatory bodies, compared regional and international good practices, and proposed tailored support mechanisms to improve DNFBP compliance. GABAC plans to document the forum’s outputs into an AML/CFT/PF awareness manual for DNFBPs, and participants adopted a communiqué committing to implement the recommendations formulated.

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