By Beatrice Gondyi
The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has sounded a high alert on an expanding and increasingly sophisticated terrorist financing ecosystem that now exploits crowdfunding platforms, the identities of deceased citizens, and gender-based proxies to move funds undetected.
In its 2025 Annual Report, obtained exclusively by Spear News, the agency detailed how terror networks are outmaneuvering conventional anti-money laundering safeguards—using everything from PayPal pages disguised as humanitarian campaigns to SIM cards registered to dead persons.
The findings paint a troubling picture of a financial underworld that has adapted faster than regulatory frameworks, raising urgent questions about national security and banking sector vigilance.
According to the report, foreign-based facilitators are running slick social media campaigns on platforms like Telegram and Signal, soliciting donations under the guise of relief or educational support. Donors—often unwitting sympathisers—are encouraged to contribute between $50 and $500, amounts deliberately kept below automated alert thresholds.
These funds are pooled into a master account controlled by a senior terrorist operative living legally abroad. Once the balance reaches a critical mass, the money is fragmented into dozens of sub-threshold payments and routed through International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) and remittance apps to a network of “money mules” in Nigeria—students, small-business owners, and relatives.
The final destination? Cash conversions, dual-use items like motorcycles and fertilisers, or satellite internet equipment for field operatives.
“This is not random charity,” a senior security source told Spear News. “This is a structured, bureaucratic funding machine operating like a shadow state.”
Perhaps most alarming is the NFIU’s revelation that terrorist financiers are systematically using telephone numbers not registered to the account holders—including SIMs registered to deceased persons.
By severing the link between bank accounts, SIM cards, and Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs), facilitators effectively erase the audit trail. When a suspicious transaction is flagged, investigators trace the phone to an unrelated or deceased individual, while the real operator remains anonymous and continues operations undeterred.
This tactic, the report notes, is often combined with gender-based proxy accounts—bank accounts opened in women’s names but secretly controlled by male commanders or logistics managers.
“They exploit cultural norms that make women less likely to be suspected,” the NFIU stated. “Wives, sisters, or female associates are used as fronts to distance illicit funds from true operatives.”
In many cases, the women are unaware of the volumes being routed through their accounts, while their male handlers hold the ATM cards, mobile banking credentials, and PINs.
The NFIU also uncovered that terrorist cells—particularly those linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)—employ precise, professional-sounding transaction narrations to maintain internal accounting systems.
Contrary to expectation, these descriptions are often truthful and detailed, allowing field commanders to justify expenses to central financial controllers.
Analysts observed high-frequency logistics-related payments with accurate narrations sent from a single source to multiple recipients—evidence of a structured financial bureaucracy.
However, other cells use innocuous words, secret codes, or alphanumeric strings, sometimes switching between languages to bypass automated bank filters that flag terms like “Jihad” or “Boko Haram.”
Beyond terrorism, the NFIU flagged a surge in financial fraud, Ponzi schemes, cryptocurrency-enabled investment scams, and hacking-related fraud, exploiting fintech onboarding gaps, particularly tiered accounts with minimal identification requirements.
Public sector corruption also remained a persistent vulnerability, with state and local government funds diverted through accounts of finance officers and third-party associates. Cash transactions, the report warned, continue to complicate audit trails and asset tracing.
Intelligence-Driven Response Needed
The NFIU has translated its findings into targeted advisories, executive alerts, and strategic intelligence products for competent authorities. But experts insist that more needs to be done—including enhanced inter-agency intelligence sharing, real-time transaction monitoring, and public awareness campaigns to prevent unwitting citizens from becoming money mules.
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