• DRC, Chad, and Equatorial Guinea rank as Africa’s most exposed countries in 2025

• Only Botswana, Seychelles, and Mauritius fall into the low-risk category

• Sub-Saharan Africa shows broad improvement after several countries leave FATF’s grey list

The Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Equatorial Guinea are the African countries most exposed to money-laundering risks in 2025, according to a ranking released on Monday, December 8, by the Basel Institute on Governance. The institute, which is affiliated with the University of Basel in Switzerland, specializes in research on corruption and financial crime.

The Basel Anti-Money Laundering Index 2025 evaluates the vulnerability of 177 countries and territories to money laundering and related financial crimes, along with their capacity to address these threats. The index is built on 17 indicators drawn from sources including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Transparency International, and the World Bank. These indicators fall into five categories: the quality of anti-money-laundering regulations; corruption and fraud risks; financial transparency; public-sector transparency and accountability; and legal and political risks.

Scores are normalized on a scale of 0 to 10. Higher scores indicate higher risk. Each category is assigned a weighting to produce a single composite score, also on a 0 to 10 scale. The weightings are: AML regulatory quality (50%), corruption and fraud risks (17.5%), financial transparency (17.5%), public transparency and accountability (5%), and legal and political risks (10%).

Countries are grouped into three risk levels: low risk (below 4.70), medium risk (4.70–6.08), and high risk (above 6.08).

Across Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (ranked 3rd worldwide) leads the list of countries most exposed to money-laundering risk with a score of 7.63. It is followed by Chad (4th globally), Equatorial Guinea (5th), Gabon (8th), the Central African Republic (9th), Guinea-Bissau (10th), the Republic of Congo (11th), Djibouti (13th), and Niger (14th). Algeria, ranked 15th worldwide, completes the top ten in Africa.

The ten African countries least exposed to money-laundering risk are, in order: Botswana (4.12 points), Seychelles, Mauritius, Tunisia, Namibia, Morocco, Ghana, Egypt, Zambia, and Senegal.

More broadly, sub-Saharan Africa recorded noticeable progress this year, helped in part by the removal of six countries from the FATF grey list, the global watchdog for money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks. Despite a still-high regional average score (6.14), 70% of countries in the region posted clear improvements in 2025. Seven of the ten most improved countries globally are in sub-Saharan Africa: Liberia, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mali, Tanzania, and Côte d’Ivoire. Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire both moved from the high-risk to the medium-risk category.

Of the 48 African countries included in the index, 25 are classified as high risk, 20 as medium risk, and only three as low risk (Botswana, Seychelles, and Mauritius).

At the global level, Myanmar ranks as the country most exposed to money-laundering risk this year, with a score of 8.18, followed by Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Equatorial Guinea. The countries least exposed are Finland, Iceland, San Marino, Denmark, and Estonia.

Ranking of African Countries Most Exposed to Money-Laundering Risk in 2025 (Basel AML Index)

1. Democratic Republic of Congo (3rd worldwide)

2. Chad (4th)

3. Equatorial Guinea (5th)

4. Gabon (8th)

5. Central African Republic (9th)

6. Guinea-Bissau (10th)

7. Republic of Congo (11th)

8. Djibouti (13th)

9. Niger (14th)

10. Algeria (15th)

11. Madagascar (16th)

12. Comoros (20th)

13. Kenya (23rd)

14. Angola (24th)

15. Eswatini (25th)

16. Togo (27th)

17. Guinea (28th)

18. Cameroon (30th)

19. Sierra Leone (31st)

20. Mozambique (32nd)

21. Benin (33rd)

22. Mauritania (35th)

23. Liberia (36th)

24. Mali (37th)

25. Nigeria (38th)

26. Côte d’Ivoire (41st)

27. Lesotho (42nd)

28. Zimbabwe (43rd)

29. São Tomé and Príncipe (46th)

30. Gambia (52nd)

31. Burkina Faso (53rd)

32. Uganda (54th)

33. Rwanda (55th)

34. Ethiopia (57th)

35. South Africa (64th)

36. Tanzania (72nd)

37. Cape Verde (77th)

38. Malawi (79th)

39. Senegal (83rd)

40. Zambia (84th)

41. Egypt (87th)

42. Ghana (96th)

43. Morocco (100th)

44. Namibia (116th)

45. Tunisia (119th)

46. Mauritius (123rd)

47. Seychelles (126th)

48. Botswana (151st)

Walid Kéfi