The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has uncovered sophisticated methods allegedly being used to finance terrorist activities in Nigeria, including the use of bank accounts belonging to women, inactive or disconnected telephone lines, coded transaction descriptions and crowdfunding platforms.
The findings are contained in the NFIU 2025 Annual Report, which detailed emerging techniques allegedly adopted by terrorist financiers and their facilitators to move, conceal and disguise illicit funds.
According to the report, some male terrorist commanders and logistics managers allegedly control bank accounts opened in the names of their wives, sisters and other female associates.
The NFIU said the arrangement could help conceal the identities of the individuals actually controlling the funds, adding that some women whose accounts are exploited may not be aware of the transactions being conducted through their accounts.
The financial intelligence agency also identified the use of pre-registered SIM cards, telephone numbers registered in the names of deceased persons and lines belonging to other individuals as another method used to facilitate mobile banking and receive transaction alerts.
The practice, according to the NFIU, can make it more difficult for investigators to establish the actual relationship between telephone numbers, Bank Verification Numbers and the individuals behind suspicious transactions.
The report further disclosed that terrorist cells, including those linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, allegedly use coded and seemingly innocent descriptions when conducting financial transactions.
The agency said such facilitators may use secret codes, combinations of letters and numbers or different languages to disguise the purpose of payments and evade automated systems designed to detect terrorism-related transactions.
Crowdfunding Used to Move Funds
The NFIU also identified social media crowdfunding as another emerging channel allegedly being exploited to raise and transfer funds to terrorist networks.
According to the report, foreign-based facilitators may create online campaigns presented as humanitarian or educational appeals, attracting contributions from hundreds of donors who make relatively small payments.
The funds are then allegedly consolidated and moved through international money-transfer operators and remittance applications to networks of Nigerian money mules.
The agency said students, small-business owners and relatives could be used as intermediaries to receive the funds before they are converted to cash, used to purchase dual-use items or transferred to terrorist logistics managers and field operatives.
The findings highlight the growing sophistication of terrorist financing networks and the difficulty of tracing illicit funds when legitimate banking, telecommunications and digital fundraising platforms are exploited.
The report also points to the need for increased vigilance by financial institutions, telecommunications companies and digital platforms in identifying suspicious transactions and activities that could facilitate terrorism financing.
The NFIU’s findings provide further insight into how terrorist networks are adapting their financial operations to evade detection as security and intelligence agencies intensify efforts to disrupt the funding channels sustaining insurgent activities in Nigeria.
