The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has commenced efforts to establish a new framework for stronger collaboration between government and private-sector institutions in the fight against financial crimes and illicit financial flows.
The initiative, known as the proposed Joint Financial Intelligence Collaboration (JFIC), was unveiled at a high-level stakeholder engagement organised with the support of the British High Commission in Nigeria and the Convention for Business Integrity (CBi).
The meeting brought together regulators, banks, insurance companies, fintech firms, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), technology companies and other key players in Nigeria’s financial ecosystem.
Speaking on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, Hajia Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, the Unit’s General Counsel, Felix Obiamalu, said the engagement represented a decisive transition from discussions to the actual design and implementation of the initiative.
He said the objective was to jointly determine how the proposed partnership would operate, the value it would deliver and how it could be sustained over time.
According to him, “We have moved from dialogue to design, to commitment and implementation.”
Representing the British High Commission, the Illicit Financial Flows Officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Jehanzeb Khan, reaffirmed the importance of stronger public-private sector collaboration in combating illicit financial flows.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of the Convention for Business Integrity, Olusoji Apampa, said the process was deliberately structured to place the private sector at the centre of decision-making.
He explained that the approach was aimed at ensuring that the proposed framework reflects operational realities and secures broad ownership among stakeholders.
Delivering the keynote address, former Chair of the Egmont Group and former Director of South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre, Xolisile Khanyile, described private-sector participation in the fight against financial crime as a national responsibility.
Khanyile urged Nigeria to adopt a practical and phased approach to implementing the proposed collaboration.
She identified trust, shared ownership and collaboration as the foundations of successful public-private partnerships, stressing that the initiative was timely and necessary given Nigeria’s importance within the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework.
The engagement ended with broad stakeholder support for the proposed JFIC framework and a commitment to advancing a partnership that would improve financial intelligence, strengthen early threat detection and enhance Nigeria’s ability to respond to increasingly sophisticated financial crimes.
Participants agreed that no single institution could effectively combat modern financial crime alone, making closer cooperation between government and industry essential to identifying emerging risks, disrupting illicit financial networks and strengthening the resilience of Nigeria’s financial system.
