Banks, fintech firms, insurance companies, capital market operators, and other reporting entities flagged 82,143 suspicious transactions to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit in 2024 amid intensified efforts to detect money laundering, terrorism financing, and other illicit financial activities.
The figure was contained in the NFIU’s 2024 Annual Report, which also revealed that the agency received 25,819,719 Currency Transaction Reports and 23,364 Suspicious Activity Reports during the year under review. The report, which was recently released on the NFIU’s website, was obtained by Sunday PUNCH on Friday.
According to the report, “During the review period, the NFIU received a total of 25,819,719 CTRs, 82,143 STRs, and 23,364 SARs.” The NFIU explained that it receives threshold-based disclosures, suspicious transaction and activity reports, as well as regulatory submissions relating to anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and counter-proliferation financing measures.
It added that it works closely with regulators, including the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Insurance Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering, to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations.
An analysis of the report showed that Deposit Money Banks accounted for the majority of suspicious transaction filings, submitting 73,531 reports, representing about 89.5 per cent of all STRs received during the year.
Other Financial Institutions filed 5,442 reports, while capital market operators and insurance companies submitted 1,796 reports. Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions accounted for 1,013 reports, while Virtual Asset Service Providers, which include digital asset operators, filed 361 suspicious transaction reports.
The report noted that suspicious transaction reports are mandatory whenever a reporting entity determines that a transaction or activity may be linked to money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, or other unlawful conduct.
It stated, “Section 7 of the MLPAA requires all reporting entities, including financial institutions and designated non-financial institutions, to submit a report where there is a determination that the activity or transaction is suspicious and possibly linked to money laundering, terrorist financing, or other illegal activity.”
Quarterly data showed a steady increase in suspicious transaction reporting by banks throughout the year. DMBs filed 14,744 STRs in the first quarter, 17,031 in the second quarter, 20,052 in the third quarter, and 21,704 in the fourth quarter.
Other Financial Institutions also recorded sustained growth, with filings rising from 842 in the first quarter to 1,908 in the fourth quarter. The NFIU also received 23,364 Suspicious Activity Reports in 2024. Banks again accounted for the largest share with 19,873 reports, followed by Other Financial Institutions with 2,071 reports and capital market and insurance firms with 1,382 reports. DNFBPs filed 38 SARs, while no SARs were recorded from VASPs during the period.
Beyond suspicious transactions, reporting entities submitted 25.82 million Currency Transaction Reports to the NFIU. Deposit Money Banks accounted for 23.16 million of the reports, representing about 89.7 per cent of the total, while Other Financial Institutions filed 2.53 million reports. Capital market and insurance companies submitted 127,726 reports.
The report explained that financial institutions are required to report transactions above N5m for individuals and N10m for legal persons to the NFIU within seven days. It added that all incoming and outgoing transfers exceeding $10,000, whether conducted by a single individual or aggregated within a day, must be reported within 24 hours.
Quarterly currency transaction reporting by banks increased from 5,101,625 reports in the first quarter to 5,478,751 in the second quarter and peaked at 6,297,310 in the third quarter before easing slightly to 6,281,077 in the final quarter.
Other Financial Institutions recorded 103,489 reports in the first quarter, 396,083 in the second quarter, 1,055,017 in the third quarter, and 978,641 in the fourth quarter. The NFIU further disclosed that it received 21,466,288 reports relating to Politically Exposed Persons in 2024.
Deposit Money Banks accounted for the largest share of the filings, recording 3,643,024 reports in the first quarter, 4,007,797 in the second quarter, 4,745,405 in the third quarter, and 8,727,968 in the fourth quarter. Capital market and insurance institutions filed 54,280 reports during the year, while Other Financial Institutions submitted 231,747 reports.
As part of its compliance and enforcement activities, the NFIU conducted 1,317 off-site examinations and 98 on-site examinations across Abuja, Enugu, Kaduna, Kwara, Lagos, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, and Sokoto.
The agency said it also issued guidelines on the identification, verification, and reporting of suspicious transactions related to money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing.
According to the report, the guidelines were introduced to improve the quality of Suspicious Transaction Reports, reduce false positives and defensive filings, and ensure the implementation of effective risk-based measures against criminal abuse of the financial system.
The report showed that the NFIU onboarded 483 reporting entities onto its reporting platforms during the year and registered 1,317 entities on the NIGSAC portal.
It also disclosed that 44,256 DNFBPs were enrolled on a simplified suspicious transaction reporting platform developed jointly with SCUML to improve compliance across sectors such as real estate, casinos, dealers in precious metals and stones, legal practitioners, accountants, and trust service providers.
The NFIU said it identified several emerging financial crime risks from its analysis of reports received during the year.
These included frequent cash withdrawals from government accounts at the state and local government levels, the use of corporate entities as intermediaries for transactions involving virtual asset service providers, misuse of personal bank accounts for business transactions to evade taxes, and the diversion of public funds through third-party entities.
The agency also raised concerns over the use of illegal Bureau de Change operators to launder funds for politically exposed persons and some government agencies. It warned that emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence tools, online file converters, and digital platforms, could expose institutions to data breaches, fraud, and regulatory violations if not properly managed.
The report added that terrorist organisations were exploiting dealers in precious metals and stones to finance their activities, while some operators in the sector conducted transactions through personal savings accounts and operated without mandatory SCUML certification, increasing the risk of money laundering, fraud, tax crimes, and corruption.
Separately, the NFIU disclosed that it disseminated 3,030 proactive intelligence reports and 1,866 reactive intelligence reports to competent authorities in 2024 to support investigations and prosecutions relating to money laundering, terrorism financing, and associated crimes.
Among the top offences linked to intelligence reports disseminated during the year were corruption, which accounted for 1,958 reports; fraud, with 1,022 reports; stand-alone money laundering, with 705 reports; criminal tax offences, with 385 reports; and illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, with 294 reports. Terrorism financing accounted for 239 reports, while human trafficking and migrant smuggling generated 114 reports.
The NFIU also strengthened international intelligence cooperation, receiving 84 requests from foreign financial intelligence units and making 109 requests to its counterparts abroad. The report noted that the agency received 143 spontaneous disclosures from foreign intelligence units, some of which were shared with domestic agencies to support investigations.
Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a draft framework aimed at modernising anti-money laundering practices across the country’s financial system by adopting intelligent, automated solutions.
In a circular dated May 20, 2025, and addressed to all regulated financial institutions, the apex bank stated that the proposed standards were in response to the growing digitalisation of Nigeria’s financial system and the increasing sophistication of financial transactions.
According to the CBN, the new standards are intended to enhance efficiency, improve detection accuracy, and ensure full compliance with both local regulations and international frameworks such as those established by the Financial Action Task Force.
Under the new regime, financial institutions will be required to deploy intelligent AML systems capable of real-time transaction monitoring and anomaly detection.
These systems must integrate AI and ML capabilities to perform behavioural pattern recognition, risk scoring, and adaptive learning to identify potentially suspicious activities, such as large cash deposits, cross-border transactions, and cryptocurrency dealings.
The standards also mandate that these systems interface smoothly with core banking applications, customer onboarding platforms, and internal transaction processors.
Automated reporting to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit is also a key requirement. AML platforms must generate Suspicious Transaction Reports, Currency Transaction Reports, and Foreign Currency Transaction Reports as required by law and be equipped with dashboards to support internal and external compliance oversight.
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