johannes! gawaxab : talking points a€ “ presidential visit to the bank of namibia talking points by mr johannes! gawaxab, governor of the bank of namibia, at the presidential visit to the bank of namiba, windhoek, 19 october 2022. * * * director of ceremonies, your excellency, the president of the republic of namibia, dr hage geingob, deputy governors of the bank, the entire management and staff of the bank of namibia, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, good morning, 1. on behalf of the board, management and staff, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you, your excellency most cordially to the bank of namibia this morning. it is indeed an immense honour to host you at the bank today. your excellency, ladies & gentlemen, 2. your presence here today, signifies a day of celebration to honour our history as a central bank and as a nation. this is an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come as a bank of the namibian people, whilst at the same time glimpsing into the future with confidence and hope. it is a day of celebrating great leaders such as yourself, that have brought us to this point. indeed, we are standing on the shoulders of giants. 3. i would like to emphasise that since the dawn of independence, the government of namibia, in recognition of the important role of the central bank, has been committed to providing an enabling environment within which the bank of namibia could operate independently. in doing so, the bank has been able to successfully discharge its mandate and has been committed to taking decisions in the best interest of the namibian people and the economic prosperity of this country. government in general and the ministry of finance in particular have embraced sound, stability - oriented policies, thereby providing a solid foundation that facilitates the bank's operations. your excellency, 4. the world economy has taken a major hit with the devastating impact of the covid - 19 pandemic and now the russia - ukraine conflict, and likewise namibia has not been spared. despite this very difficult global situation, i do believe that there is a lot of promise and opportunity, and that our stars are aligning. the economy recorded positive growth in 2021 after almost five years of contraction, and the first two 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches quarters of 2022 have also delivered neat positive growth rates and opportunities in the

and human trafficking. crime and money laundering is indeed a global problem which requires a concerted global response. in order to protect our respective financial systems from the destabilizing effects of crime and money laundering, it is imperative that we act and respond to this scourge with unprecedented resolve and commitment to combating it. everybody has, therefore, a responsibility to combat money laundering, because its negative impact has a unique way of creating far ranging negative consequences. by tackling money laundering we would be attacking the criminals at their weakest and most vulnerable point - their money sources. in the past years since the start of the criminalization of money laundering and the enforcement of anti money laundering laws in the 1970s and more vigorously in the 1980s and 1990s, evidence from court cases and reported suspect transaction has given an indication that the most common money laundering typologies has been in the realm of drug trafficking, organized crime, corruption, illicit dealing in weapons, human trafficking, fraud and theft. the act of successful money laundering fuels the perpetration of the above crimes by providing the criminals with avenues to conceal their deeds from law enforcement agencies and ultimately provides them with the rewards for their criminality in the form of money which would then appear to be legitimate. the concealment cycle for the proceeds of money laundering involves, firstly, the distancing of the criminals from the illegal proceeds ( money or property ), the obscuring of the money trail, hiding of the origins to eventually posses what would appear as clean money. the role played by globalization and ict in the concealment process in money laundering has been aptly described by the following quote from a central banking thriller “ nest of vipers ” by linda davies : “ the money screamed across the wires, its provenance fading in a maze of electronic transfers which shifted it, hid it, broke it up into manageable wads which would be withdrawn and re - deposited elsewhere, obliterating the trail ”. the linkage between money laundering and crime denotes that everybody as individuals is affected by money laundering. crime erodes basic individual liberties in that it threatens their rights to life and entitlement to property. the consequences of crime and money laundering are bad for business, development, and the general rule of law. governments have therefore got real reasons for spearheading the combating of money laundering. another reason why money laundering should be combated is that if left unchecked, it would lead to the accumulation of economic power to