The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit ( NFIU) has flagged suspicious transactions valued at over N150tn between January and March 2022.
This is according to the Unit’s Suspicious Transaction Report/Suspicious Activity Report released at the weekend
The development comes as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and NFIU officials said they had intensified their surveillance on campaign spending by political parties and their candidates ahead of the 2023 polls.
NFIU, formerly a unit under the EFCC, is the central national agency responsible for the coordination of the country’s anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing frameworks
Also, the EFCC has deployed its operatives to track candidates’ campaign spending and monitor their bank accounts as part of actions to combat money laundering ahead of the general elections.
The development is meant to frustrate the movement of huge cash under the guise of election spending by candidates and their political parties.
According to the latest NFIU report, the N150tn suspicious transactions were reported by banks, insurance firms, microfinance banks, assets management companies, brokers and other financial institutions.
Also, Read; Alleged money laundering: Zamfara Gov offers EFCC search access
The report also shows that suspicious transactions have risen by 23 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Meanwhile, out of the 2,845,927 suspicious transactions recorded by financial institutions in the first quarter of the year, banks alone accounted for 2,810,213, according to the NFIU activity statistics.
Editor Paul Akhagbemhe
