Risk Indicators
- FATF/EU Blacklist/Greylist (Lower Concern)
- Terrorism Financing (Medium Concern)
- US Dept of State INCSR
- Proliferation Financing
- Corruption
- Criminality
- Resilience & Governance
- Financial Transparency
- Offshore Finance Centres
- Sanctions
Background
Chad’s history reaches back to the Kanem-Bornu Empire, the Bagirmi and Ouaddai kingdoms, and the Sanusiyya order, whose influence was tied to trans-Saharan trade and shifting control across the Sahel. French expansion brought these centers under French Equatorial Africa by 1910, after campaigns against Rabih AZ-ZUBAYR and other regional powers. Independence in 1960 was followed by instability, civil war, Libyan intervention, and the 1987 “Toyota War,” before Idriss DEBY’s rise and the later transition led by his son, Mahamat Idriss DEBY.
Chad continues to face poverty, oil-price volatility, insurgencies linked to Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa, and rebellions in its northern and eastern regions. The 2021 formation of a Transitional Military Council, the 2023 constitutional referendum, and announced plans for elections illustrate an unsettled political transition. Conflict across borders with Sudan, Libya, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon—alongside UN, ECOWAS, and other sanctions concerns—has intensified refugee movements, arms trafficking, illicit finance, and broader sanctions-evasion risks.
AML & Terrorist Financing
Chad is not identified by FATF as having strategic AML deficiencies, yet its 2023 evaluation found limited effectiveness across all 11 outcomes, with significant gaps in risk understanding, supervision, and enforcement. ANIF receives relatively few suspicious transaction reports, while COBAC, BEAC, and CIMA show stronger sectoral awareness than authorities overseeing DNFBPs, and weaknesses persist in beneficial ownership transparency, confiscation, and informal financial activity. Terrorist financing risks remain pronounced amid Boko Haram, ISWAP, porous borders, cash-based commerce, and trafficking networks, with no TF convictions, incomplete sanctions-list procedures, and low effectiveness in addressing targeted financial sanctions and proliferation financing.
Sanctions
Chad is not currently subject to any international sanctions, and no sanctions imposed by Chad on other nations are specifically identified. As a UN member, it is expected to implement Security Council measures, including the targeted regime affecting neighboring Central African Republic armed groups and associated individuals under Resolution 2789 (2025). Chad is mentioned as a jurisdiction connected to Russia-related sanctions-evasion networks, but available information does not identify government involvement, documented transit routes, or partnerships with sanctioned countries.
Criminality
Corruption is described as endemic across procurement, licensing, customs, taxation, and dispute settlement, while oversight by bodies such as the Cour des Comptes and the General Inspectorate has produced limited public reporting; the newly established AILC nevertheless investigated 19 ministries in its first 100 days and reported recovering 63 billion FCFA. Chad also faces extensive trafficking, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, arms and drug smuggling, wildlife and mineral crimes, financial fraud, and banditry, with armed groups, state-embedded actors, and some private-sector participants implicated across vulnerable sectors.
Reports
Chad faces persistent trafficking risks affecting children, refugees, migrants, and other vulnerable communities, while the National Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons remains insufficiently operational and prosecutions are absent. Security threats also remain concentrated around Lake Chad, where Boko Haram, ISIS-WA, illicit trade, porous borders, and improvised explosive devices intersect with broader regional instability.
Industry/Product Sector Risk
Chad’s industry landscape is marked by a largely cash-based and informal economy, with heightened exposure across casinos, currency exchange, money remittance, real estate, mining, telecommunications, transport, and public works. While major banks and certain regional frameworks provide some safeguards, gaps in supervision, beneficial-ownership transparency, customer due diligence, and monitoring remain significant, including in sectors licensed or overseen by BEAC, the Ministry of Finance, and other CEMAC authorities. The country’s oil dependence, porous borders, regional insecurity, and extensive informal trade create pathways for corruption, embezzlement, smuggling, trafficking, terrorist financing, and the concealment of illicit wealth through both traditional and emerging channels.
Economy & Investment Climate
Chad’s economy remains heavily anchored in petroleum, while agriculture, livestock, gold, solar energy, and telecommunications offer avenues for diversification amid limited infrastructure, financing, skilled labor, and reliable electricity. Although the National Agency for Investment and Exports (ANIE) and frameworks such as CEMAC and OHADA support investment, businesses must navigate a demanding operating environment shaped by landlocked logistics, institutional weaknesses, security concerns, and uneven implementation of reforms.
Cryptocurrency Regulations
Chad’s cryptocurrency landscape remains largely undefined: digital assets are not legal tender, while Regulation No 22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF recognizes certain service providers without establishing comprehensive rules for trading, tokens, taxation, or investor protection. With no licensed VASPs, limited AML/CFT implementation under GIABA expectations, and oversight constrained among bodies such as COSUMAF, COBAC, and ANIF, participants face a cautious environment marked by substantial regulatory uncertainty.
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