NFIU Mobilises Banks, Fintechs, Regulators To Tackle Financial Crime

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit has begun moves to establish a stronger public-private intelligence-sharing framework aimed at detecting financial crimes, disrupting illicit financial networks and strengthening Nigeria’s financial system.

The initiative, known as the Joint Financial Intelligence Collaboration, JFIC, brings together regulators, banks, insurance companies, fintech firms, Virtual Asset Service Providers and technology companies to jointly develop a framework for sharing financial intelligence across the economy.

The high-level engagement, supported by the British High Commission and the Convention for Business Integrity, is expected to provide participating institutions with a trusted platform for identifying emerging financial threats and improving coordinated responses to illicit financial flows.

Speaking on behalf of the NFIU Chief Executive Officer, Hajia Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, the Unit’s General Counsel, Felix Obiamalu, said the initiative had moved beyond consultation to the implementation stage.

“We have moved from dialogue to design, to commitment and implementation,” Obiamalu said, stressing that stakeholders were now focused on determining how the collaboration would operate, the value it would deliver and how it could be sustained over time.

Also speaking, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Illicit Financial Flows Officer, Jehanzeb Khan, who represented the British High Commission, emphasised the need for stronger cooperation between government agencies and private-sector institutions to combat illicit financial flows.

The Managing Director of the Convention for Business Integrity, Olusoji Apampa, said the process was deliberately designed to give private-sector stakeholders a central role in shaping the framework, rather than imposing a system from government.

According to him, such an approach would ensure that the proposed collaboration reflects the operational realities of financial institutions and secures broad ownership among stakeholders.