NFIU tracks 41.7m transactions in fresh offensive against criminal networks

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, has intensified its use of financial intelligence to disrupt terrorism financing, money laundering and organised criminal networks across the country.

The Head of Strategic Communications at the NFIU, Aishatu Bantam, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at a joint security news conference organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Mrs Bantam said the unit was increasingly tracing the financial footprints of terrorists, kidnappers, drug traffickers, cybercriminals and other organised criminal groups as part of efforts to dismantle their networks.

She said the strategy was designed to complement conventional security operations by identifying the financiers, facilitators, beneficiaries and assets linked to criminal activities.

According to her, financial intelligence remains critical to dismantling criminal networks because their operations ultimately depend on access to and movement of illicit funds.

She said the NFIU had strengthened collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force and other security and law-enforcement agencies to ensure that complex cases involving terrorism financing and illicit financial flows received specialised financial investigation.

Mrs Bantam said the unit had also deepened cooperation with regulatory and law-enforcement institutions to identify suspicious transactions and vulnerabilities within Nigeria’s financial system.

She said NFIU analysis for 2025 demonstrated the scale of financial intelligence available to investigators, with reporting entities submitting more than 41.7 million Currency Transaction Reports.

She added that 42,082 Suspicious Transaction Reports and 10,513 Suspicious Activity Reports were also submitted during the year.

According to her, tax crimes and fraud accounted for 51 per cent of intelligence reports disseminated across the top 10 designated offences.

Mrs Bantam said the unit’s analysis had also uncovered emerging methods of terrorism financing involving proxy and mule accounts, pre-registered SIM cards, crowdfunding, social media and fragmented remittance transactions.

She said the findings underscored the need for stronger customer identification, sanctions screening and intelligence-led monitoring of financial activities.

The NFIU spokesperson said Nigeria’s financial intelligence capability had received international recognition after the NFIU and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, won the UNODC-World Bank-Egmont Group Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative Award.

She said the award recognised the successful collaboration between the two agencies in tracing and recovering illicit assets.

Mrs Bantam also said the NFIU had strengthened operational partnerships with the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, the United States and other international partners.

According to her, the engagements focused on intelligence sharing, terrorism financing, transnational financial crimes, emerging criminal typologies and specialised capacity development.

She said the NFIU was also working with the Nigeria Police Force to strengthen the referral of cases requiring financial investigation, particularly those involving terrorism, banditry and crude-oil theft.

Mrs Bantam said the unit’s participation in the validation of Nigeria’s updated National Risk Assessment had further strengthened the country’s ability to identify and respond to emerging money-laundering and terrorism-financing threats.

She said the NFIU would continue to strengthen inter-agency cooperation and international partnerships to prevent criminals from hiding the proceeds of their activities within Nigeria’s financial system.

She said the unit’s priority remained to “identify the money, expose the networks, disrupt the financing and support the recovery of criminal proceeds.”