NFIU Uncovers Terror Financing Network Exploiting Dead Persons’ Accounts and Online Crowdfunding
The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has uncovered an emerging crowdfunding network being exploited to raise and channel funds for terrorist operations in Nigeria, alongside other sophisticated methods including the use of accounts and telephone lines registered to deceased persons to obscure the movement of illicit funds.
The disclosures are contained in the NFIU’s 2025 Annual Report, which examined emerging trends in terrorist financing and broader financial crime during the year under review. According to the report, the crowdfunding scheme involves foreign-based facilitators who use social media platforms to solicit donations under the guise of humanitarian relief or educational support, before routing the proceeds through multiple layers to terrorist operatives within the country. The agency said hundreds of sympathisers are typically encouraged to make relatively small contributions, ranging between $50 and $500, through PayPal pages or conventional bank accounts, with the amounts deliberately kept low to avoid triggering automated anti-money laundering alerts.
The NFIU also disclosed that terrorist financiers have been opening bank accounts in women’s names and using phone numbers not registered to the actual account holders or true beneficiaries for mobile banking transactions and alerts, a method the agency said adds a further layer of concealment to the true identities behind such transactions. In a related and particularly notable trend, the report noted that some networks have resorted to using accounts and SIM registrations belonging to people who have died, a technique the agency said provides additional anonymity given that the named account holders are no longer available to explain or challenge the transactions.
The report further revealed that certain terrorist cells have adopted increasingly sophisticated methods to disguise the purpose of their financial transactions, employing coded language, seemingly innocuous descriptions, alphanumeric combinations, and multiple languages within transaction narrations to avoid detection by financial institutions and regulators.
Beyond terrorism financing specifically, the NFIU said its broader risk and crime analysis for the year identified an increasingly interconnected threat landscape spanning financial crime, technology, and cross-border activity. The agency described fraud as a dominant underlying offence during the period, citing a rise in Ponzi schemes, fraudulent crowdfunding arrangements, cryptocurrency-enabled investment scams, and hacking-related fraud. It noted that these schemes increasingly exploit gaps in fintech onboarding processes, including tiered account structures that require minimal identification, while digital platforms are used to rapidly recruit victims and move funds across borders.
The report also flagged persistent vulnerabilities within public sector financial management, pointing to continued diversion of state and local government funds as an area of ongoing concern for the agency’s monitoring efforts.
The NFIU, which is responsible for collecting and analysing financial disclosures from reporting institutions and generating intelligence to support agencies combating money laundering and terrorism financing, said its findings underscore the increasingly complex and adaptive nature of financial crime networks operating within and across Nigeria’s borders, urging continued vigilance from financial institutions, regulators, and the public in identifying and reporting suspicious transactions.
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