The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit has uncovered emerging methods used to raise, move and conceal funds for terrorist operations, including fraudulent crowdfunding, proxy bank accounts and the use of phone numbers linked to deceased persons.
The findings were contained in the NFIU’s 2025 Annual Report, which identified an increasingly sophisticated network combining social media fundraising, digital financial platforms and proxy identities to move funds to terrorist operatives.
According to the report, foreign-based facilitators use social media campaigns to solicit donations under the guise of humanitarian relief or educational support.
The funds are raised through PayPal pages or conventional bank accounts, with hundreds of sympathisers contributing relatively small amounts ranging from $50 to $500.
The NFIU said the amounts were deliberately kept low enough to avoid triggering most automated anti-money laundering alerts.
The funds are subsequently pooled into a “master account” controlled by a senior member of the group living legally abroad before being moved into Nigeria through multiple transactions.
The report said the funds were fragmented into smaller payments and transferred through International Money Transfer Operators and remittance applications to a network of money mules, including students, small-business owners and relatives.
Once received, the funds were either converted to cash, used to purchase items or transferred through mobile banking channels to logistics managers and field operatives.
The NFIU also identified the use of gender-based proxy accounts as another emerging method of terrorist financing.
According to the report, terrorist financiers open bank accounts in women’s names while male commanders or logistics managers secretly control the accounts.
“Terrorist financiers are opening bank accounts in women’s names while male commanders and logistics managers secretly control them,” the report stated.
It said the accounts could be used by wives, sisters or female associates, with the actual operators controlling ATM cards, mobile banking credentials and PINs.
The report also revealed the use of phone numbers that are not registered to account holders or the actual beneficiaries for mobile banking and transaction alerts.
Pre-registered SIM cards, numbers registered to deceased persons and SIMs linked to gender-based proxies were among the methods identified by the agency.
The NFIU said the practice weakens the connection between bank accounts, SIM cards and Bank Verification Numbers, making it more difficult to trace the real individuals behind suspicious transactions.
The report further identified sophisticated transaction narrations as another tool used to disguise terrorist financing.
It said some cells, particularly those linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province, used detailed and professional-sounding transaction descriptions as part of an internal accounting system.
Other facilitators used innocent words, secret codes and alphanumeric strings, sometimes switching between languages, to conceal the purpose of transactions and evade automated monitoring systems.
Beyond terrorist financing, the NFIU said its analysis identified an increasingly interconnected financial crime landscape involving fraud, technology and cross-border activity.
The report cited growing cases of Ponzi schemes, fraudulent crowdfunding arrangements, cryptocurrency-enabled investment scams and hacking-related fraud, while also identifying vulnerabilities in fintech onboarding, public sector financial management and cash-based transactions.
Security experts have called for stronger intelligence sharing and closer collaboration between security agencies, financial institutions and regulatory authorities.
They also urged banks to strengthen identity verification and compliance procedures to prevent criminal networks from exploiting proxy accounts and other weaknesses in the financial system.
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