NIGERIA PRESIDENT SIGNS THE NIGERIA FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT (NFIU) BILL INTO LAW

President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit Bill into law. NFIU is the Nigerian arm of the global financial intelligence unit which was before now domiciled in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The new law sought to comply with international standards on combating money laundering, financing of terrorism and check suspicious transactions. The establishment of the NFIU is based on the requirements of Recommendation 29 of the Financial Action Task Force Standards and Article 14 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. With the signing of the new Act, NFIU will now be independent of the EFCC. The NFIU is empowered to receive currency transactions reports, suspicious transactions reports, currency declaration reports and other information relating to money laundering and terrorist financing activities from financial institutions and designated non-financial institutions.

It will also receive reports on the cross-border movement of currency and monetary instruments, maintain a comprehensive financial intelligence database for information collection, analysis and exchange with counterpart FIUs and law enforcement agencies around the world.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) is the Nigerian arm of the global financial intelligence Units (FIUs) domiciled within the EFCC as an autonomous unit and operating in the African Region. The NFIU seeks to comply with international standards on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism and proliferation. NFIU is a member of Egmont Group.

The Egmont Group is the global body responsible for setting standards on best practices for FIUs and is made up of more than 131 FIUs from 131 jurisdictions. It was founded in 1995 to foster international collaboration in the exchange of intelligence by member states. It also supports and influences the work of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as it relates to the mandate of FIUs under FATF Recommendations 29 and 40. The NFIU largely draws its powers from the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) establishment Act, 2004.

ISDFoundation Secretariat