RismadarVoice Reporters
September 29, 2026
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, have begun a three-day stocktake to assess Nigeria’s preparedness for the 2027 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Mutual Evaluation.
The exercise commenced on Tuesday at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja and brings together officials of the two agencies and other relevant stakeholders to review Nigeria’s progress, identify outstanding gaps and strengthen inter-agency coordination.
The 2027 Mutual Evaluation will assess Nigeria’s compliance and effectiveness in implementing international standards on anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing.
EFCC Executive Chairman Ola Olukoyede said the exercise was aimed at consolidating Nigeria’s progress and ensuring continued compliance with FATF requirements.
Represented by the Secretary to the Commission, Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda, Olukoyede stressed the importance of strengthening financial intelligence, asset tracing and recovery, money laundering investigations and prosecution.
“It is unimaginable that Nigeria returns to the Grey List,” he said, urging relevant institutions to consolidate the progress already recorded.
Nigeria was placed on the FATF Grey List in February 2023 after strategic deficiencies were identified in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework. The country was removed from increased monitoring in October 2025 following reforms to address its action plan.
Olukoyede said the stocktake would help stakeholders determine what was working, identify areas requiring additional resources and make necessary adjustments ahead of the evaluation.
NFIU Chief Executive Officer Hafsat Abubakar Bakari described the exercise as an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between institutions responsible for combating financial crimes.
Represented by the Chief Operating Officer for Law Enforcement Agencies, Emmanuel Sotande, Bakari said the assessment would go beyond examining laws and institutional structures to determine how effectively they were being implemented.
She said assessors would examine evidence of financial investigations, successful prosecutions, asset recovery, inter-agency cooperation and the use of financial intelligence to disrupt criminal activities.
In a presentation on Nigeria’s preparedness, NFIU Chief of Staff Mohammed Shahid Ahmed said the country had implemented measures to address weaknesses identified during its previous Mutual Evaluation.
He identified financial investigations, recovery of proceeds of crime, international cooperation and cross-border currency declaration among areas where reforms had been undertaken.
Ahmed said Nigeria now had a relatively short period to consolidate those gains before the 2027 assessment.
The EFCC and NFIU said sustained cooperation among law enforcement agencies, financial intelligence institutions and other stakeholders would be critical to Nigeria’s preparations and its efforts to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit financial activities.
