NFIU, Private Sector Move to Strengthen Financial Intelligence Cooperation
Abuja, Nigeria – September 10, 2026
Written by Queen Abayomi
The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has intensified efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s fight against illicit financial activities by bringing key players in the public and private sectors together to develop a new framework for financial intelligence collaboration.
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The engagement, held in Abuja with the support of the British High Commission, Nigeria, and the Convention for Business Integrity (CBi), brought together regulators, banks, insurance companies, fintech firms, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), technology companies and other stakeholders.
The stakeholders are working towards the development of the proposed Joint Financial Intelligence Collaboration (JFIC), a platform designed to promote greater information sharing, early identification of financial threats and a coordinated response to illicit financial networks.
Representing the Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, Hajia Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, the Unit’s General Counsel, Mr. Felix Obiamalu, said the initiative had progressed beyond discussions and was now entering a more practical phase.
“We have moved from dialogue to design, to commitment and implementation,”
he said.
According to Obiamalu, the focus of the engagement was to jointly establish how the partnership would function and the value it would deliver to participating institutions.
“The objective is no longer simply to discuss the concept. It is to jointly determine what this partnership should look like, how it should operate, what value it should create and how it can be sustained over time,”
he said.
Also speaking, Mr. Jehanzeb Khan, Illicit Financial Flows Officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), who represented the British High Commission, reaffirmed the need for stronger cooperation between government institutions and the private sector in addressing illicit financial flows.
The Managing Director of the Convention for Business Integrity, Mr. Olusoji Apampa, said the engagement was intentionally structured to ensure that private-sector stakeholders were not merely participants but were actively involved in shaping the proposed framework.
He noted that such an approach would help ensure that the initiative responds to real operational challenges and secures broad ownership among stakeholders.
In her keynote presentation, Ms. Xolisile Khanyile, former Chair of the Egmont Group and former Director of South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre, described private-sector involvement as a national responsibility.
She urged Nigeria to pursue a practical and phased approach in implementing the proposed collaboration.
“Trust, shared ownership and collaboration are the foundations of every successful public-private partnership,”
Khanyile said.
She further stressed the importance of the initiative, noting:
“Given Nigeria’s importance within the global AML/CFT framework, this initiative is both timely and necessary.”
The engagement ended with stakeholders expressing strong support for the proposed JFIC framework and committing to further collaboration aimed at improving financial intelligence sharing, strengthening threat detection and enhancing Nigeria’s ability to respond to increasingly sophisticated financial crimes.
The discussions also reinforced a central message: combating illicit financial activity cannot be achieved by a single institution. It requires sustained cooperation between government and industry, effective information sharing and the collective ability to identify and respond to emerging risks.
The initiative therefore represents an important step towards building a more resilient and coordinated financial intelligence system in Nigeria.
DemocracyNewslineNewspaper, September 10, 2026
