Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has scored the highest points and emerged as the best in intelligence cases nomination among the 164 countries membership of the Egmont Group.
The agency won the highest Award of Excellence also called the BECA Award of Excellence jointly sponsored by the World Bank and the UN.
According to a statement signed by Ahmed Dikko, chief media analyst, the award was received on Thursday during the plenary of global financial intelligence units’ group in Riga, Latvia.
At the same occasion, the NFIU also received the Egmont Group certificate of appreciation for offering its ICT Team to work and redevelop its global intelligence exchange software, which the plenary also approved to replace the earlier version developed by the U.S.
While commending the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, Mr Jerome Beaumont, a French national and executive secretary of the group described the NFIU as “a team with highly knowledgeable and very efficient personnel”.
This is not the first time the NFIU is getting these international awards this year, at the end of May 2022 in Senegal, the Unit won 3 different awards from ECOWAS.
The Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), gave the NFIU a star award for mentorship, as well as two other awards for “valuable contribution to the region” and a third one in collaboration achievement.
Commenting on this feat of winning five highest international awards in West Africa and the world within a period of three months, the director/CEO of the NFIU, Mr Modibbo Tukur said, “We tried to assemble the best team from day one. We molded each staff into becoming a technician of himself. We niched ourselves into the global intelligence community. Once you come to us, we always try to give you exactly what you are looking for.”
The Director Added That, “We also spend all our money on training our staff. We train our staff in West Africa and other places in the continent such as Kenya and Tanzania. My staff are always on their way to the U.S, UK, and Israel. We sent our staff to even Saudi Arabia, we are in Austria, Hungary etc.
“We are constantly understudying the world. Once you assume duty at the NFIU, we stretch you out on your capacity from day one until we know what you are best for, then we start intensifying in best practices and modern techniques. So, each staff is well stretched out and made a resource person. But again, like every organisation in the country, we have serious challenges. Our major challenge is that the traditional organisations and platforms in the country are not cooperating well when it comes to operational duties. There is no interagency collaboration and synergy and that’s a complete disaster in areas of national security. I hope it will be overcome one day. If you remember, the US government concluded its operation in silos among security agencies which eventually allowed September 11 to happen.”
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