The Inconvenient Truth: Congratulations on your public sector board appointment. You are now automatically a politically exposed person (PEP)

The phone rings late one evening, and a courteous voice from the seat of government informs you that the President, wishes you to chair the board of a strategic state enterprise. By the following morning, your WhatsApp has received 237 messages, of which 230 offer heartfelt congratulations, six request employment for nephews of uncertain qualification, and one, from your bank, warmly invites you to submit updated evidence of your source of wealth. Only that last correspondent, it later emerges, fully understood what had happened. You had not merely accepted an honour; you had acquired a status, and in the language of global finance, you had become a Politically Exposed Person. Hence the spirit of this reflection: warm congratulations, and a quiet word of condolence.