Stakeholders across West Africa have renewed calls for urgent, coordinated and intelligence-led action to combat human trafficking and transnational organised crime, warning that weak financial systems, gender inequality and porous borders continue to fuel the growing menace.
The call was made at the Joint GIABA-EGDC Regional Forum on Women and Transnational Organised Crime: Human Trafficking Risks in West Africa, held in lkeja Lagos from December 17 to 19, 2025. The forum brought together policymakers, financial intelligence practitioners, gender experts, law enforcement agencies, civil society organisations and development partners from across the ECOWAS region.
Speaking at the opening session, the Director-General of the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Mr. Edwin Harris Jr., described human trafficking as a pervasive and evolving crime that undermines development, erodes human rights, fuels illicit economies and threatens regional stability.
Citing data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Harris noted that children account for more than 75 per cent of trafficking victims in West Africa, while the region remains one of the most affected globally by trafficking in persons, child labour and modern slavery. He also referenced assessments by the International Labour Organization showing that West Africa hosts a disproportionately large share of forced labour, debt bondage and related exploitation.
“These are not just statistics; they represent thousands of lives, often children, stolen from a future of dignity and opportunity,” Harris said.
According to him, trafficking thrives in the region due to poverty and limited economic opportunities, entrenched gender inequality, conflict and displacement, porous borders, weak institutional capacity and the growing involvement of organised criminal networks. He stressed that human trafficking is a profit-driven crime sustained by illicit financial flows, adding that traffickers exploit weak financial systems just as much as they exploit vulnerable people.
Harris underscored the importance of the partnership between GIABA and the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (EGDC), noting that while GIABA focuses on strengthening anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism frameworks, EGDC addresses the social and gender-based vulnerabilities that traffickers exploit. He said combining financial investigation with social protection and empowerment offers the most effective way to tackle both the supply of victims and the financing of traffickers.
In her welcome address, the Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and GIABA National Correspondent, Ms. Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, reinforced the financial dimension of human trafficking, describing it as one of the most lucrative forms of transnational organised crime globally.
Quoting estimates from the International Labour Organisation and UNODC, Bakari said human trafficking and forced labour generate over 150 billion dollars annually, with women and girls accounting for more than 60 per cent of identified victims worldwide. She noted that sexual exploitation and domestic servitude remain particularly prevalent in West Africa.
“Behind every trafficking victim lies a financial trail,” Bakari said, explaining that proceeds from recruitment, transportation, forged documentation and exploitation are often laundered through bank accounts, mobile money platforms, informal value transfer systems, shell companies and increasingly, digital and crypto-enabled channels.
She highlighted West Africa’s intersecting vulnerabilities, including poverty, unemployment, displacement caused by conflict and climate pressures, porous borders and entrenched gender inequality, which criminal networks exploit with increasing sophistication. According to her, traffickers often recruit victims through trusted community networks and social media platforms, using false promises of education or employment.
Bakari referenced GIABA and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) typology reports indicating that trafficking networks in the region rely heavily on low-value, high-volume transactions, the use of third-party accounts-
often held by women and young people-and weak customer due diligence in certain sectors. These trends, she said, underline the need for risk-based supervision and intelligence-led interventions.
She outlined the role of the NFIU in analysing financial data, disseminating actionable intelligence and supporting domestic and international cooperation. Through the use of Suspicious Transaction Reports and collaboration with agencies such as the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), law enforcement bodies and prosecutors, Bakari said financial intelligence has helped identify trafficking networks, trace assets and disrupt criminal proceeds.
As for International cooperation, she added, has also been critical, noting that intelligence exchanges through platforms such as the Egmont Group have enabled cross-border tracking of trafficking-related funds and strengthened joint investigations.
Both speakers emphasised the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration, noting that trafficking cannot be addressed in silos. While civil society organisations often encounter victims first and understand community-level dynamics, financial intelligence units and law enforcement agencies expose the financial and operational structures behind the crime.
The forum, they noted, provides an important platform to integrate gender-sensitive analysis, risk-based anti-money laundering frameworks and regional information-sharing among ECOWAS member states, in line with GIABA and FATF standards.
Calling for action beyond rhetoric, Harris urged stakeholders to adopt holistic, collaborative and victim-centred strategies that prioritise prevention, community empowerment, education and livelihoods. Bakari echoed the call, stressing that every disrupted financial flow represents not only a criminal network weakened, but a human life protected.
Participants are expected to use the three-day forum to strengthen trust, deepen cooperation and develop actionable strategies to dismantle human trafficking networks and other forms of transnational organised crime across West Africa.
Both GIABA and the NFIU reaffirmed their commitment to working closely with EGDC, ECOWAS member states, civil society and international partners to ensure that human trafficking finds “no refuge, no safe profit and no place” in the region.
