By Deborah Bodunde

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) says terrorist financiers are opening bank accounts in women’s names and secretly using them to move and conceal illicit funds.

In its 2025 annual report, the NFIU identified emerging methods being used to finance terrorist operations in Nigeria.

According to the report, male commanders and logistics managers sometimes control accounts opened in the names of their wives, sisters and female associates to distance themselves from illicit funds.

“Terrorist financiers are opening bank accounts in women’s names while male commanders and logistics managers secretly control them,” the report reads.

“They exploit cultural norms that make women less likely to be suspected by authorities, using wives, sisters, or female associates as fronts to distance illicit funds from the true operatives.”

The NFIU said some women whose accounts are used may be unaware of the transactions or the volume of money passing through their accounts.

It described the practice as “identity laundering”, noting that the men may possess the ATM cards, mobile banking credentials and personal identification numbers linked to the accounts.

The agency also identified the use of disconnected or improperly registered phone numbers as another method of concealing financial transactions.

According to the report, facilitators use phone numbers for mobile banking or account alerts that are not registered to the actual account holder or beneficiary.

It said pre-registered SIM cards, SIM cards registered to deceased persons and SIM cards linked to other individuals could be used to break the connection between the phone number and the real beneficiary.

“They bypass the security link between SIM cards and Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) by using pre-registered SIMs, SIMs registered to deceased people, or SIMs tied to gender-based proxies,” the agency said.

“This severs the audit trail: when a transaction is flagged, investigators trace the phone to an unrelated person, letting the real facilitator stay anonymous and continue operations.”

The NFIU said terrorist cells, particularly those linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), use detailed and coded transaction descriptions to manage and conceal payments.

It said some groups use precise narrations for logistics-related payments from a single source to multiple recipients.

The agency said such descriptions could serve as an internal accounting mechanism for terrorist organisations, despite appearing unusual from a financial monitoring perspective.

It added that facilitators use innocuous words, secret codes, alphanumeric strings and different languages to evade automated banking filters.

“Facilitators use this coded language, often switching languages to evade banks’ automated keyword filters that flag terms like ‘Jihad,’ ‘Arms,’ or ‘Boko’,” the report said.

“This practice obscures the true purpose of transfers, preventing detection and enabling continued financing.”

USE OF CROWDFUNDING, REMITTANCE APPS

The NFIU identified crowdfunding and international remittance platforms as channels that could be exploited to move terrorist funds into Nigeria.

The report detailed a four-stage crowdfunding model in which a foreign-based facilitator could launch social media campaigns presented as humanitarian relief or educational support.

It noted that donors would then be directed to payment pages or bank accounts, with hundreds of sympathisers contributing relatively small amounts.

“Hundreds of sympathizer donors contribute $50–$500 each, amounts small enough to avoid most automated AML alerts,” the report said.

According to the NFIU, the funds could subsequently be consolidated in a master account before being divided into smaller payments and transferred through international money-transfer operators and remittance applications to Nigerian money mules.

The agency said students, small-business owners and relatives could be recruited as intermediaries.

It said the recipients could convert the funds to cash, purchase dual-use items or transfer the money through mobile banking to terrorist logistics managers and field operatives.

The NFIU said the findings demonstrate the growing sophistication of terrorist financing networks and their exploitation of legitimate banking, telecommunications and digital fundraising systems to sustain insurgent operations.

Source: TheCable