Campaign funding: NFIU detects N150trn suspicious transactions in 3 months

The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) at the weekend disclosed the detection of over N150 trillion suspicious transactions in three months, between January and March 2022. The NFIU in its Suspicious Transaction Report/Suspicious Activity Report released at the weekend, disclosed that the detection was part of the activities to track campaign funding in the country towards the 2023 general elections.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and NFIU have intensified surveillance on campaign funding by political parties and their candidates to ensure all parties adhere to the spending limits specified by the law.

The NFIU is the central national agency overseeing the coordination of Nigeria’s anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing frameworks. It was formerly under the EFCC.

The EFCC also revealed that it has deployed operatives to monitor candidates’ campaign spending, including their bank accounts to prevent money laundering towards the 2023 general elections.

The NFIU report indicated that the N150 trillion suspicious transactions were reported by banks, insurance firms, microfinance banks, assets management companies, brokers and other financial institutions.

The report also indicated that suspicious transactions have risen by 23 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the corresponding period of 2021.

According to the NFIU activity statistics, of the 2,845,927 suspicious transactions recorded by financial institutions in the first quarter of the year, banks accounted for 2,810,213.