The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit has uncovered sophisticated methods allegedly being used by terrorist financiers to raise, move and conceal funds, including crowdfunding campaigns, proxy bank accounts and mobile numbers registered to deceased persons.
The findings were contained in the NFIU’s 2025 Annual Report, which detailed emerging terrorist financing techniques involving social media, remittance platforms, fintech services and the banking system.
According to the report, foreign-based facilitators are increasingly using social media to solicit donations under the guise of humanitarian assistance or educational support before transferring the funds to terrorist networks operating in Nigeria.
The NFIU said the facilitators typically encourage hundreds of sympathisers to make relatively small contributions, ranging from $50 to $500, through PayPal pages or conventional bank accounts.
The relatively low value of individual donations, it noted, could enable the transactions to escape automated anti-money laundering alerts.
The funds are subsequently consolidated into a master account controlled by a senior member of the network based abroad.
Once the accumulated funds reach a predetermined threshold, the money is divided into numerous smaller transfers and sent through international money transfer operators and remittance applications to money mules in Nigeria.
The NFIU identified students, small-business owners and relatives among individuals allegedly used as intermediaries.
Upon receiving the funds, the mules may convert them into cash or use them to purchase items that could serve both civilian and terrorist purposes, including motorcycles, fertilisers and satellite internet equipment.
The money may also be transferred through mobile banking channels to logistics coordinators and field operatives, according to the report.
The agency said the process ultimately enables terrorist groups to integrate funds raised through seemingly legitimate activities into their operational financing networks.
Women’s accounts used as proxies
The NFIU also identified the use of women’s bank accounts as another emerging method of disguising terrorist financing.
It said male commanders and logistics managers sometimes secretly control accounts opened in the names of wives, sisters or other female associates.
According to the agency, the tactic exploits the assumption that women may be less likely to attract suspicion during financial investigations.
The report described the practice as “identity laundering,” noting that male operators may possess the ATM cards, mobile banking credentials and PINs associated with accounts belonging to women.
In some cases, the account holders may allegedly be unaware of the nature or scale of transactions conducted through their accounts.
The NFIU further disclosed that terrorist facilitators were using telephone numbers that were not registered to the account holders or actual beneficiaries for mobile banking and transaction alerts.
It said some networks were using pre-registered SIM cards, numbers registered to deceased persons and SIM cards associated with proxy account holders.
According to the agency, the practice can make it difficult for investigators to establish the real identity of individuals controlling accounts and moving funds.
The financial intelligence agency also identified the use of detailed or coded transaction narrations to conceal terrorist-related payments.
It said terrorist cells, particularly those linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province, sometimes use professional-looking transaction descriptions as part of an internal financial accounting system.
The NFIU said analysts had observed frequent logistics-related payments from a single source to multiple recipients, accompanied by detailed narrations.
However, it noted that other facilitators deliberately use seemingly harmless words, secret codes and alphanumeric combinations to conceal the purpose of transactions.
Some allegedly switch between languages to evade automated banking systems designed to flag suspicious keywords associated with terrorism and other criminal activities.
