Nigeria’s Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) is developing a new cooperation mechanism for sharing financial information. Representatives of regulators and financial system participants discussed the Joint Financial Intelligence Collaboration (JFIC) project at a high-level meeting in Abuja.
As Premium Times Nigeria reports, the initiative is intended to create a reliable platform on which government institutions and the private sector can interact more effectively. The event was attended by representatives of regulators, banks, insurance and fintech companies, virtual asset service providers, technology companies, and other stakeholders.
Development of the JFIC mechanism
NFIU legal counsel Felix Obi Amalu, who represented Ms. Bakari at the event, said that the process had moved from discussing the proposed partnership to designing it, establishing commitments, and implementation. According to him, participants must determine what the partnership will look like, how it will operate, and what benefits it will provide to the institutions involved.
The meeting was organized by the NFIU under the auspices of the British High Commission in Nigeria and the Convention for Business Integrity. Jeganzeb Khan, a representative of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, stressed the need to strengthen public-private cooperation in countering illicit financial flows.
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Private sector participation
Former chair of the Egmont Group and former director of South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre, Xolisile Khanyile, called on Nigeria to implement the partnership practically and in stages. She noted that trust, shared commitment, and cooperation are the foundation of successful public-private partnerships.
Olusoji Apampa, managing director of the Convention for Business Integrity, said that the private sector was deliberately placed at the center of decision-making so that the future mechanism would take into account the operational realities of private institutions. The NFIU reported participants’ support for the proposed mechanism and a shared desire to strengthen financial intelligence and improve threat detection.
The NFIU is Nigeria’s central body that receives, analyzes, and disseminates financial intelligence related to money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes. The institution receives suspicious and threshold transaction reports and provides relevant information to law enforcement, security, intelligence, regulatory, and supervisory authorities.
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