The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) is seeking deeper cooperation from banks, insurance companies, fintechs, crypto businesses and other financial-sector operators as it moves to strengthen the country’s response to money laundering, terrorist financing and illicit financial flows.
The agency is pushing the private sector to play a more active role in a proposed Joint Financial Intelligence Collaboration (JFIC) framework, which is expected to create stronger channels for intelligence sharing between government institutions and businesses.
The initiative was discussed at a high-level private-sector engagement in Lagos supported by the British High Commission and the Convention for Business Integrity (CBi).
The meeting brought together regulators, financial institutions, technology companies, fintech operators, insurers, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) and other stakeholders to examine how closer public-private cooperation could improve the detection and disruption of financial crimes.
NFIU seeks stronger industry participation
Representing NFIU Chief Executive Officer Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, the agency’s General Counsel, Felix Obiamalu, called on private-sector participants to contribute to the development of the proposed JFIC framework.
Obiamalu said closer cooperation would be essential to improving the flow of financial intelligence between the public and private sectors.
The proposed framework is expected to provide a more structured mechanism through which relevant stakeholders can exchange information and intelligence that could help identify suspicious financial activity and support investigations.
For insurers, the development could translate into greater expectations around the identification, escalation and reporting of potentially suspicious transactions, particularly as financial crime risks increasingly cut across traditional banking and emerging digital-finance channels.
Why insurers are part of the conversation
The inclusion of insurance companies in the initiative highlights the expanding role of the sector in Nigeria’s wider anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing architecture.
Insurance businesses handle significant volumes of financial transactions and customer information, creating potential exposure to financial crime risks. Stronger information-sharing arrangements could therefore place greater emphasis on insurers’ ability to identify unusual activity and provide relevant intelligence to authorities.
The proposed collaboration also comes as Nigeria’s financial ecosystem becomes increasingly interconnected, with conventional banks operating alongside fintech platforms, digital payment providers, cryptocurrency businesses and other technology-driven financial services.
That interconnectedness can make financial crime more difficult to detect when suspicious activity moves across several institutions or sectors.
Trust will be critical
Xolisile Khanyile, former Chair of the Egmont Group, who delivered the keynote presentation at the engagement, stressed the importance of trust, shared ownership and effective collaboration in building successful financial intelligence partnerships.
Her message underscores a central challenge facing public-private intelligence initiatives: institutions must be willing to share relevant information while maintaining appropriate safeguards around customer data, confidentiality and regulatory obligations.
For financial institutions, the effectiveness of the proposed framework will therefore depend not only on the availability of data, but also on how quickly and securely intelligence can move between businesses, regulators and enforcement agencies.
NFIU expands its technology footprint
The latest push for collaboration comes as the NFIU continues to develop and export technology aimed at improving financial intelligence capabilities.
The agency recently deployed its indigenous financial intelligence platform, Ilivro, to Guinea-Bissau’s Financial Intelligence Unit, CENTIF Guinea-Bissau.
According to the NFIU, the platform provides a secure electronic system for receiving, analysing and disseminating financial intelligence, covering the intelligence process from the initial submission of reports through to operational action.
The agency also provided technical support and training to assist with the platform’s implementation.
CENTIF Guinea-Bissau President Justino Sá said the technology would strengthen the institution’s operational capacity.
The deployment reflects the NFIU’s broader push to deepen financial intelligence cooperation across Africa while positioning technology as a tool for improving the effectiveness of anti-financial-crime institutions.
Financial crime remains a major threat
The urgency behind the NFIU’s latest initiative is also reflected in its 2025 activities.
The agency’s annual report showed that tax-related crimes and fraud accounted for more than half of the financial crime intelligence reports disseminated to law enforcement and regulatory authorities during the year.
The figures point to the scale of the challenge facing Nigeria’s financial system and reinforce the need for closer cooperation between public authorities and private-sector institutions.
For insurers, banks and fintech companies, the emerging JFIC framework could ultimately mean a greater emphasis on collaboration, information sharing and financial-crime intelligence.
As Nigeria intensifies its AML/CFT efforts, the direction from the NFIU is increasingly clear: financial institutions are expected to move beyond simply complying with reporting requirements and become more active participants in the country’s financial intelligence network.
