The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit has uncovered new methods allegedly used by terrorist financiers to raise, move and conceal funds, including crowdfunding networks, proxy bank accounts and phone numbers registered to dead persons.
In its 2025 Annual Report, the NFIU said foreign-based facilitators were using social media to solicit small donations, often under the guise of humanitarian relief or educational support. The funds were allegedly pooled and later transferred to Nigeria through multiple smaller transactions designed to avoid automated anti-money laundering alerts.
The agency said the money was moved through networks of proxies, including students, small-business owners and relatives, before being converted to cash, used to purchase operational items or transferred to terrorist logistics managers and field operatives.
The report also identified the use of accounts opened in women’s names but allegedly controlled by male commanders or logistics managers. According to the NFIU, some women whose identities were used as proxies were unaware of the transactions being carried out through their accounts.
Terrorist facilitators were also found to be using pre-registered SIM cards, numbers registered to deceased persons and phone lines linked to proxies for mobile banking and account alerts. The NFIU said the practice could make it more difficult for investigators to connect suspicious transactions to their true beneficiaries.
The agency further reported that some terrorist cells used detailed, professional-looking transaction descriptions to maintain internal financial records, while others relied on harmless words, codes and alphanumeric strings to disguise the purpose of transfers and evade automated monitoring systems.
Security experts Chidi Omeje and Lawrence Alobi urged Nigerian security agencies, banks and financial regulators to strengthen intelligence sharing, improve identity verification and more aggressively track illicit financial flows. They also called for sanctions against financial institutions found to have enabled loopholes exploited by criminal networks.
