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

Tax crimes and fraud dominated Nigeria's financial crime reports in 2025, accounting for over 50% of intelligence reports shared with law enforcement and regulatory bodies. According to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), tax crimes related to direct and indirect taxes made up 30% of all intelligence reports. The NFIU, a central agency within the Central Bank of Nigeria, receives disclosures from financial institutions, analyzes data, and produces intelligence to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

The annual report highlights ongoing risks and increased regulatory monitoring of transactions. The NFIU disseminated 2,033 reactive intelligence reports in 2025, focusing on reactive intelligence generated from disclosures submitted by reporting entities and international counterparts. Fraud, including schemes like Ponzi schemes, fraudulent crowdfunding arrangements, cryptocurrency-enabled investment scams, and hacking-related fraud, was identified as the dominant predicate offence.

Nigeria loses approximately $17.72 billion annually to illicit financial flows, according to Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, the Minister of State for Finance. Banks and fintech companies submitted the majority of Suspicious Transaction Reports (42,082) to the NFIU, with deposit money banks accounting for 92% of the total. The NFIU continues to work to mitigate illicit financing and strengthen the monitoring of suspicious financial activities, including the requirement for international air travelers carrying over $10,000 in cash to declare the funds upon boarding their flights.