Headline: FG trains 100 officials for global financial crime assessment
The Federal Government has begun training 100 officials from key government institutions to strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness for its next international assessment of measures to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing.
The five-day programme, organised in Abuja from October 12 to 16, is designed to prepare members of the Mutual Evaluation Working Groups for a national mock assessment scheduled for November 2026.
The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) said the training was facilitated by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), with support from SecFIN Africa, following Nigeria’s request.
Speaking at the opening, NFIU Chief Executive Officer Hafsat Abubakar Bakari said the country needed to demonstrate not only the strength of its laws and institutions but also their effectiveness in tackling financial crimes.
“Nigeria must be ready to not only explain its laws, policies and institutional arrangements, but also to demonstrate the results they deliver,” Bakari said.
She added that the programme built on Nigeria’s successful removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in October 2025.
The training is expected to equip participants with the knowledge and evidence required to demonstrate compliance with international standards during the forthcoming assessment.
Representing the GIABA Director-General, Giwa Siman Sechap, the organisation’s Director of Evaluations and Compliance, stressed that mutual evaluation was a collective national responsibility.
“Beyond technical compliance, countries must demonstrate that their systems are delivering results,” he said.
SecFIN Africa’s Country Representative, Professor Shehu Abdullahi, said effective preparation depended on institutions sharing reliable information and taking collective responsibility for national priorities.
He noted that the exercise would help Nigeria identify gaps, consolidate existing progress and demonstrate the effectiveness of its financial integrity framework.
The participating institutions include the Central Bank of Nigeria, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Department of State Services, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Federal Ministry of Justice, Nigeria Police Force and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
Others are the Corporate Affairs Commission, Code of Conduct Bureau, Defence Intelligence Agency, National Counter Terrorism Centre, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Insurance Commission and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.
The Bureau of Public Procurement, Mining Cadastral Office, Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority and Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering are also participating.
The institutions' responsibilities cover financial intelligence, regulatory supervision, suspicious transaction reporting, investigations and prosecutions, asset recovery, border control, beneficial ownership transparency and national security.
According to the NFIU, the programme will cover financial intelligence, virtual assets, beneficial ownership, investigations, prosecutions, asset confiscation, international cooperation, targeted financial sanctions and proliferation financing risks.
Participants will also undertake practical exercises and simulated assessment interviews to prepare them to provide accurate information and verifiable evidence to international assessors.
The training builds on a national stocktake and gap analysis coordinated by the NFIU, with support from the EFCC, DSS, ICPC, CBN and SEC through the Inter-Ministerial Committee.
The exercise reviews implementation across relevant institutions, identifies outstanding gaps and establishes priorities for corrective action.
The NFIU disclosed that Nigeria had increased its pool of globally accredited experts on FATF standards from fewer than 10 to 25 over the past two years.
It said further training cohorts of between 100 and 150 participants were planned quarterly, with possible expansion to the private sector.
Bakari said the ultimate objective was to translate inter-agency cooperation into measurable improvements in the detection and disruption of financial crime.
“The real value of this exercise lies in the improvements it helps us deliver,” she said, adding that stronger coordination and evidence-based action would help build a more effective system for tackling financial crimes.
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