NIGERIA CTAG MEETING

UNCLAS ABUJA 000227 SIPDIS SENSITIVE S/CT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER ASEC NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA CTAG MEETING REF: STATE 14279 SENSITVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. NOT FOR PUBLICATION ON THE INTERNET OR INTRANET. ¶1. (SBU) February 5, per reftel instructions, CDA hosted the first Abuja CTAG meeting. The meeting was attended by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain and the European Commission. Few countries in attendance had recent or ongoing CT-related programs in Nigeria. Those that did focussed primarily on developing the capacity of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to fight fraud and money laundering or on limited training of Nigerian law enforcement and immigration personnel in the detection of document fraud. ¶2. (SBU) The countries in attendance expressed interest in expanding CT-related cooperation with the GON. There was general support for increasing engagement with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and for continued efforts to train and professionalize Nigerian police and security personnel. It is clear that any attempt to increase CT-related cooperation with the GON will be handicapped by the relative paucity of resources governments are willing to spend in Nigeria and in Africa, in general. ¶3. (SBU) Based on consultations with other CTAG members, Embassy plans to expand the next meeting's list of participants to include Israel and The Netherlands. While this first CTAG meeting hosted by the Embassy was limited to G-8 and other prospective donors, it was agreed that the next meeting will include representatives of the GON who are in a position to discuss what kinds of assistance would be most useful to Nigeria. ANYASO