Playing the Ostrich: Denying Terror Financing in Nigeria

On the 5th of December, the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), released its 2021 Mutual Evaluation Report to the public on The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP)]\’s money laundering activities in Nigeria. It generated an outrage from civil society organisations and security experts that a whooping ₦18 billion annual revenues through the Nigerian financial system to fund its activities of ISWAP within the Lake Chad region. This report is barely three months after the UAE government named six Nigerians on their terror list for funding Boko-Haram with a sum of $782,000 in November 2020. The announcement caught the attention of many security experts and conscious citizens on why these six people have not been extradited to face the consequences of their crime.

This Week\’s Nextier SPD Policy Weekly examines the terror financing in Nigeria in line with the GIABA report. It points out possible ways of curbing such illicit financial flows to terrorist groups in Nigeria.

Click here to download report.