The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has called on the international community to recognise the progress being made by Nigeria to strengthen its Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation (AML/CFT/CPF) framework.
NFIU delegation led by the agency’s chief executive officer, Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, made the call in a series of events in the United States.
In a statement by the NFIU, the organisation said its CEO Bakari, while speaking at a roundtable organised by the Center for International Private Enterprise in Washington D.C, highlighted the steps taken by the NFIU and other stakeholders to improve national measures to ensure the integrity of the financial system and prevent abuse by money launderers and other criminals.
In her remarks, Bakari noted that Nigeria is on the receiving end of terrorist activities in the Sahel and must adjust its AML/CFT/CPF strategy to include the private sector to succeed.
She added that Nigeria faces a significant internal crisis of banditry and kidnapping linked to terrorism and that the flow of weapons from Libya are a source of concern and is also directly associated with the escalation of Nigeria’s internal security crisis.
The CEO also highlighted that the NFIU has the political will and support to do its job but needed institutional support to achieve its mandate.
She also added that Nigeria needed the help of the international community in the fight against terrorism and proliferation finance in the Sahel and the Lake Chad regions.
In the same vein, the NFIU delegation was hosted by the director of the Africa Program at the Wilson Center, Ms. Oge Onubogu, during which both organisations agreed on a number of joint efforts to ensure that there is a wider recognition of Nigeria’s ground-breaking reforms within the highest levels of the US public and private sectors.
In particular, the NFIU CEO noted that all Nigerian stakeholders, including the NFIU, have taken concrete and laudable steps to ensure that the financiers of terrorism were identified, investigated and prosecuted.
she further highlighted that the most effective means of combating terrorism is by ensuring the funds that are used to sustain these violent acts are identified and disrupted and the NFIU was working with all key stakeholders to build capacity, including through the imminent launch of the NFIU Training Centre which will be a regional center of excellence and through the Unit’s leadership of the Lake Chad FIUs Task Force on Terrorism Financing.
