Nigeria intensifies surveillance to combat terrorism financing

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has revealed sophisticated methods used by terrorists to raise, disguise, and deploy funds across Nigeria. Reported exploitation includes crowdfunding platforms, social media, bank accounts, remittance applications, money mules, SIM cards, and various intermediaries to conceal financial trails.

In response to these threats, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has elevated terrorism financing supervision to a current supervisory priority. The CBN intends to intensify its oversight of the financial sector to prevent abuse by illicit actors, focusing on four key areas: terrorism financing risk management, transaction monitoring, the implementation of targeted financial sanctions, and suspicious transaction reporting.

The CBN will utilize a risk-based supervisory approach, incorporating both on-site and off-site engagements to support anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, and counter-proliferation financing (AML/CFT/CPF) controls across the financial sector.