Tax crimes, fraud dominate Nigeria’s financial crime reports in 2025 – NFIU

Tax crimes and fraud accounted for over 50% of financial crime intelligence reports disseminated to law enforcement and regulatory authorities in Nigeria in 2025.

The figure was contained in the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit’s (NFIU) 2025 Annual Report, which highlighted continued risks to Nigeria’s financial system and increased regulatory monitoring of transactions.

The NFIU is the central national agency domiciled within the Central Bank of Nigeria responsible for receiving disclosures from reporting entities, analyzing financial data, and producing actionable intelligence for competent authorities to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

What they are saying

The NFIU said it provides two types of intelligence through its Crime Records Information Management System — proactive and reactive intelligence reports.

Proactive intelligence reports are generated from the analysis of disclosures submitted by reporting entities and international counterparts, as well as information obtained from open and closed intelligence sources.

• In 2025, the NFIU disseminated 1,398 proactive intelligence reports to domestic competent authorities for further investigation.
• Reactive intelligence reports, meanwhile, are produced in response to requests for information from competent authorities and support ongoing investigations by providing additional financial information that can help identify assets, trace proceeds of crime and uncover criminal networks.

The NFIU disseminated 2,033 reactive intelligence reports in 2025.

• “In 2025, 1,398 proactive intelligence reports were disseminated to domestic competent authorities for further investigation while NFIU disseminated 2,033 reactive intelligence reports.”

The NFIU’s breakdown of intelligence reports disseminated across the top 10 designated offences showed that tax crimes related to direct and indirect taxes accounted for 30%, making it the largest category.

• Fraud followed at 21%, meaning the two offences together accounted for 51% of the intelligence reports covered by the top 10 categories.
• Money laundering accounted for another 15%, while illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances represented 10%.
• Bribery and corruption and terrorism, including terrorist financing, each accounted for 8%. Illegal currency exchange trading and participation in an organised criminal group and racketeering each represented 3%, while trafficking in human beings and migrants and smuggling or illegal migration each accounted for 1%.

The high share of fraud is also reflected in the NFIU’s broader assessment of emerging financial crime risks. The agency said fraud remains a dominant predicate offence, with growing risks involving Ponzi schemes, fraudulent crowdfunding arrangements, cryptocurrency-enabled investment scams and hacking-related fraud.

Get up to speed

The scale of financial crime comes against the backdrop of substantial illicit financial flows out of Nigeria and the wider African economy.

Nigeria loses an estimated $17.72 billion annually to illicit financial flows, according to the Minister of State for Finance, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite.

• Across Africa, an estimated $88.6 billion is lost annually to illicit financial flows, with Nigeria accounting for approximately 20% of the continent’s losses. Uzoka-Anite disclosed the figures while speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.
• The losses, according to the minister, undermine Nigeria’s ability to provide essential infrastructure and services to citizens.
• The NFIU’s report also showed the scale of suspicious financial activity being reported to the agency.

Banks, fintech companies and other reporting entities submitted 42,082 Suspicious Transaction Reports to the NFIU in 2025.

Deposit Money Banks accounted for the bulk of the filings, submitting 38,715 STRs, or about 92% of the total. Other filings came from capital market and insurance companies, other financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions, and virtual asset service providers.

What you should know

Efforts to mitigate illicit financing and strengthen the monitoring of suspicious financial activities have continued across Nigeria’s financial system.

• On August 12, the Securities and Exchange Commission directed all capital market-regulated entities to immediately subscribe to the Nigeria Sanctions NigSac Alerts system, following the designation of individuals and entities linked to terrorism financing. The directive was part of wider measures requiring regulated entities to strengthen sanctions screening and targeted financial sanctions compliance.
• The SEC also warned that unusual or suspicious transactions must be promptly reported to the NFIU.

The move adds to efforts by Nigerian authorities to tighten monitoring of financial flows and prevent the financial system from being used to facilitate terrorism financing, money laundering and other illicit activities.

In October 2025, the NFIU also reiterated that international air travellers carrying more than $10,000 in cash must declare the funds at the point of checking into their flights.