The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has uncovered an emerging crowdfunding network allegedly being used to raise and move funds for terrorist activities in Nigeria, including through accounts linked to women, third parties and deceased persons.
The findings are contained in the NFIU’s 2025 Annual Report, which, released on Tuesday, examined emerging trends in terrorist financing, financial fraud and other financial crimes.
According to the report, foreign-based facilitators use social media to solicit donations disguised as humanitarian or educational support, while encrypted platforms such as Telegram and Signal are used to distribute links to payment pages and bank accounts.
The NFIU said hundreds of sympathisers could be encouraged to make relatively small donations, typically between $50 and $500, to reduce the likelihood of triggering anti-money laundering alerts. The funds are subsequently consolidated in a “master account” before being fragmented into smaller transfers to money mules in Nigeria through international money transfer operators and remittance applications.
Students, small-business owners and relatives are among those identified as potential recipients, with the funds allegedly converted to cash or used to purchase dual-use items such as motorcycles, fertilisers and satellite internet equipment before being transferred to logistics managers and field operatives.
The agency also identified the use of women’s bank accounts as proxies, saying male commanders or logistics managers could secretly control accounts registered in the names of wives, sisters or female associates to distance themselves from illicit funds.
It further identified the use of SIM cards registered to third parties, including deceased persons, to operate mobile banking services and receive transaction alerts. According to the NFIU, the practice can obscure the link between bank accounts, phone numbers and beneficiaries, making financial trails more difficult to trace.
The report also highlighted financial techniques allegedly used by terrorist cells, including those linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Some cells reportedly use detailed transaction narrations as an internal accounting system, while others employ coded descriptions, innocuous terms and alphanumeric combinations to conceal the purpose of transfers and evade automated monitoring.
Beyond terrorism financing, the NFIU identified fraud as a dominant financial crime threat in 2025, citing growth in Ponzi schemes, fraudulent crowdfunding, cryptocurrency investment scams and hacking-related fraud.
It also flagged vulnerabilities in fintech onboarding systems and the diversion of public funds through accounts belonging to finance officers and third parties, while noting that procurement processes and extensive cash transactions continued to pose significant risks.
The NFIU said its findings had been converted into targeted advisories, executive alerts and strategic intelligence products to support relevant authorities, financial institutions and policymakers in tackling the identified threats.
