Sanctions & Compliance Analyst

Safaricom PLC is a leading telecommunications company founded in 1997 and based in Nairobi, Kenya. It operates in the telecommunications industry.

Reporting to the Senior Manager Sanctions & Compliance, The Sanctions & Compliance Analyst is responsible for supporting the organization’s Financial Crime Compliance framework by ensuring adherence to local and international sanctions regimes, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF), and Proliferation Financing (PF) regulations. The role is critical in safeguarding the organization against financial crime risks by maintaining effective sanctions screening controls, customer due diligence measures, and transaction monitoring processes. The incumbent will oversee the screening of customers, transactions, business partners, vendors, and other relevant parties against regulatory watchlists, sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEP) databases, adverse media sources, and internal risk indicators. This includes identifying, investigating, and escalating potential sanctions and compliance alerts in accordance with internal policies, regulatory requirements, and industry best practices.

The role requires continuous monitoring of evolving sanctions regulations issued by global authorities such as the United Nations (UN), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), European Union (EU), His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT), and other applicable regulatory bodies to ensure the organization’s controls remain effective and compliant. The Analyst will assess potential exposure to sanctioned individuals, entities, countries, and sectors while providing timely risk-based recommendations to management.

Additionally, the Sanctions & Compliance Analyst will collaborate with cross-functional teams within Agile squads to strengthen financial crime controls, support regulatory audits and examinations, conduct partner compliance reviews and investigations, and contribute to the development and enhancement of sanctions compliance programs, policies, procedures, and screening systems. The role also involves delivering guidance and awareness initiatives to promote a strong compliance culture across the organization.

By proactively identifying and mitigating sanctions and financial crime risks, the Analyst will help ensure that the organization’s products, services, and platforms are not used to facilitate money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, sanctions evasion, fraud, corruption, or other illicit activities, while protecting the organization from regulatory, legal, financial, and reputational risks.

1. Review and investigate sanctions screening alerts generated from customer onboarding, payments, partner onboarding, and customer databases.
2. Perform name screening against applicable sanctions, watchlists, politically exposed persons (PEP), and adverse media databases.
3. Differentiate true matches from false positives and document rationale for decisions.
4. Escalate confirmed or potential sanctions matches in line with internal procedures.
5. Conduct comprehensive investigations on customers, transactions, and counterparties.
6. Assess sanctions, AML, CFT, and reputational risks associated with alerts and cases.
7. Gather and analyze customer information, transactional activity, and supporting documentation.
8. Recommend appropriate risk mitigation measures and control actions.
9. Ensure compliance with local and international sanctions regulations (UN, OFAC, EU, UK HMT, and other applicable regimes).
10. Support the implementation and monitoring of sanctions compliance policies and procedures.
11. Maintain awareness of regulatory changes and sanctions developments.
12. Ensure all investigations and decisions meet regulatory and audit standards.
13. Maintain accurate and complete records of investigations, reviews, and decisions.
14. Prepare detailed case summaries, management reports, and escalation memos.
15. Ensure timely closure of alerts and cases within established service level agreements (SLAs).
16. Support regulatory examinations, audits, and compliance reviews through high-quality documentation.
17. Promote awareness of sanctions compliance obligations across the organization.
18. Support training initiatives for staff on sanctions, screening, and financial crime risks.
19. Contribute to process enhancement projects and automation initiatives.
20. Share lessons learned and emerging typologies to strengthen the compliance framework.
21. Participate in the testing and validation of sanctions screening systems and controls.
22. Identify control weaknesses, process gaps, and areas for improvement.
23. Support periodic reviews of screening rules, parameters, and risk-based controls.
24. Contribute to quality assurance activities and compliance monitoring programs.
25. Maintain and update sanctions lists from global and local regulators.
26. Manage customer, partner and internal blacklist databases.
27. Ensure timely updates and synchronization of screening systems.
28. Provide sanctions and compliance guidance to business units and operational teams within Agile squads.
29. Respond to sanctions-related queries and targeted financial sanctions notices from the Financial Reporting Centres.
30. Support the implementation of compliance initiatives and remediation actions.
31. Uphold the company code of conduct, policies and procedures, ensuring integrity and accountability in every aspect of your work.
32. All employees have a responsibility to adhere to safety, health, and wellbeing policies, guidelines and procedures in all actions and decisions.

1. Bachelor’s degree in Law, Finance, Business or related field.
2. Professional certifications such as: CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist), CGSS (Certified Global Sanctions Specialist), ICA Certificate/Diploma in AML or Financial Crime Compliance or CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner).
3. At least 2 years experience in Financial Crime Compliance, AML, or Sanctions Compliance.
4. Good knowledge of global sanctions regimes and regulatory requirements (OFAC, UN, EU, local regulators).
5. Experience working within a regulated financial institution.
6. Experience participating in sanctions model validation, tuning, or screening optimization initiatives.