Central Bank of Nigeria orders banks to freeze accounts of terrorism‑financing suspects

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a circular on June 24 2026 requiring all banks, payment‑service banks and other regulated financial institutions to immediately freeze the accounts, assets and other economic resources of six individuals and four Bureau de Change (BDC) firms designated for terrorism financing. The directive follows an update to the Nigeria Sanctions List on June 18 2026, which incorporated sanctions imposed by the Nigeria Sanctions Committee and the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under Executive Order 13224. The designated persons are Muktar Muhammad Adamu, Babangida Muhammed Adamu Hammajam, Abdullahi Umar Usman, Ibrahim Abubakar, Adamu Chiroma and Yakubu Ogirima Ibrahim. The identified BDCs are Generation Currency, Manhattan, Nine to Nine Exchange and Abbal Bako & Sons. CBN instructed institutions to screen customers, beneficial owners and transactions against the updated list, file suspicious transaction reports with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, and submit compliance reports within 48 hours, with mandatory nil returns where no matches are found. The regulator warned that non‑compliance would attract sanctions under the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 2020. The United States praised Nigeria’s cooperation, and the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) affirmed that the sanctions target only a few operators, not the sector as a whole.