Certification

Improving Risk & Compliance Standards in Africa

ACCPA AML Certification Exam

The primary aim of the ACCPA Certification Program is to interpret global Anti-Money Laundering regulations in the African context, and to bring world-class AML training to African compliance professionals who otherwise could not afford it.

The ACCPA Certification Program is the only AML certification program designed specifically with AML compliance professionals in Africa in mind. This certification program is geared towards compliance professionals at African financial institutions. Unlike other certification programs, every example in the ACCPA Candidate Guidebook is from a country in Africa. ACCPA has collaborated with AML experts across Africa to provide specific examples to cases that apply to African countries. While many AML certification programs place emphasis on AML regimes in North America and Western European countries, the ACCPA certification program places emphasis on AML regimes in Africa. For more information contact us at info@acc-pa.org.

What Makes the ACCPA AML Certification Unique

In many parts of the world, AML certification programs are designed locally and applied locally. However, in Africa, the design of AML certification programs has been 'outsourced' to outsiders who do not fully understand AML regimes in Africa. The problem with AML certification in Africa is that the certification programs currently being offered to African AML compliance professionals were not conceived, developed, and authored by Africans. They were conceived, developed, and authored by non-African outsiders. What this has done is that it has created a situation where African AML compliance professionals never fully grasp a concrete understanding of global AML regulations and how they apply to Africa. ACCPA is trying to change this erroneous approach to AML certification in Africa. We believe that African experts should play a leading role in the conception, development, and authoring of certification programs for African AML compliance professionals. The following explain why the ACCPA AML Certification is unique.

Prime focus on Africa

Unlike other AML compliance certifications that focus exclusively on North America and Europe, the ACCPA AML certification focuses exclusively on Africa. The ACCPA certification captures and reflects the African reality to provide context to some of the most challenging concepts in global AML knowledge. ACCPA believes that unless global AML knowledge is tied to the African reality, the continent will continue to fall behind in its fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Focus on African typologies

While many AML compliance certification programs are dominated by typologies and case studies from Western countries, the ACCPA certification takes a different approach in Africa. Through its extensive professional network across Africa, ACCPA has compiled a rare set of typologies and case studies from different countries. These African typologies and case studies add a unique feature to the ACCPA certification study guide which makes it the world’s first certification to have an African focus.

Focus on Global AML standards as they relate to Africa

As the gatekeeper of global AML/CFT knowledge in Africa, it is ACCPA’s responsibility to ensure that global AML/CFT knowledge in Africa is tied directly to the compliance function at African financial institutions. In this respect, the ACCPA AML Certification provides an interpretation of global AML/CFT knowledge in a way that makes sense in Africa without compromising the original intended meaning of such global content.

Authors and contributors live and work in Africa

The ACCPA AML Certification is the world’s first professional certification to be conceived, designed, and authored entirely by African experts without the involvement of Western expertise. Contributors to the ACCPA AML certification live and work in Africa where they face the realities and nature of African compliance issues on a daily basis.