NFIU receives over 60,000 suspicious transactions

EFCC establishes public complaints unit to enhance dispute resolution
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Hafsat Bakari, yesterday, disclosed that the unit received over 60,000 suspicious transactions in 2023.

Bakari, who made this disclosure in Abuja at the NFIU-Law Enforcement Agencies Summit, added that the unit also received over 15 million currency transaction reports in the year under review.

However, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has established a Public Complaints (PC) desk at all its zonal directorates and the corporate headquarters.

According to Bakari, the volume of data that the NFIU receives and analyses is huge and will only continue to grow in the future as financial inclusion, decentralised finance and other emerging technologies shift transactions into the electronic space.

She explained, “Aligned to this is the use of new technologies, which provide a layer of anonymity and complexity to transactions. From cryptocurrency to agency banking, the link between the owner of the funds and the transaction itself is becoming more opaque.

“This also ties to our third challenge, the increasingly transparent borders; not in the physical sense, but in the electronic sense. Funds, money and transactions move rapidly across financial institutions, digital platforms and through underground banking systems.”

However, she added, the country’s systems for international cooperation are still subject to the frictions emplaced by national borders, information silos and non-cooperative jurisdictions.

To address the challenges, the NFIU boss urged security agencies to up their games, while proposing some strategic priorities to be considered.

“First, there needs to be a concerted effort to improve the utilisation of technology tools across all the competent authorities. While I recognise that many agencies have made significant investments in procuring and establishing databases and other platforms, interconnectivity remains a challenge.

“To become more effective, we should ensure that all our databases and platforms are built to common standards and shared protocols which will allow for seamless integration and
connectivity. We should also prioritise the integration of the various identity databases to enable us to integrate financial flows with communication data and case records,” she said.

Other solutions she proffered are deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning  (ML), developing a national financial crimes database, and encouraging the creation of fusion cells and joint investigation teams targeting the highest-risk offences and the most serious crime networks.

She added, “We should prioritise international cooperation. As I noted earlier, many of the crimes we combat are transnational. It may be that the commission of the act happens in other jurisdictions, the perpetrators are not within our borders, or the proceeds are transferred as illicit financial flows.

“Through networks such as the Egmont Group of FIUs, INTERPOL and other informal channels information is available which can support investigative activities and point to assets, which can be repatriated.”

EFCC boss, Ola Olukoyede, stated that the desk, designed to be manned by specially trained officers, would receive complaints from members of the public on all aspects of the commission’s activities.

He added that the establishment of the desk would bridge the interface gap between the EFCC and the larger public to enhance the quick resolution of complaints by the public.

Olukoyede urged members of the public with any complaint about the commission’s operational activities to take advantage of the initiative to ventilate their grievances, assuring that all issues would be addressed.

“Information on the telephone number of the PC desk can be accessed on the commission’s website and social media platforms,” he said.