Awual Rafsanjani, executive director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and head,  Transparency International in Nigeria (TI-Nigeria), has accused banks of offering opportunities for terrorism financing in the country.

Rafsanjani, stated this at the multi-stakeholder meeting on terrorism financing and violent extremism in the North-East, organised by CISLAC and TI-Nigeria, financed by GIABA-ECOWAS.

According to Rafsanjani, “The financial sector has been exploited for terrorism financing. The use of the financial sector indicates the increasing capabilities of some terrorist groups. These include the Bureau de Change operators, Point of Sale (POS) devices, wire transfers, and Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions, among other enabling platforms expanding the scope and depth of terrorism financing.

“It is worrisome that illegal money exchangers including Bureau De Change have been featured in several Terrorism Financing investigations. The 2022 National Inherent Risk Assessment of Terrorism Financing report reveals that between 2019 and 2022, about 19 companies were linked to illegal money exchangers who have used their companies to commingle funds considered to be linked to Terrorism Financing.”

In his goodwill message, Ola Olukoyede, chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)  said that the commission is settling for the use of technology to combat illicit flow of monies into the hands of terrorists.

Olukoyede expressed worry over the dimension terrorism financing has taken, disclosing that the EFCC has discovered platforms other than Binance, which are being used for terrorism financing, saying over a thousand of such accounts were closed.

He said: “The challenge before us is to seek solutions to end this decade-long nightmare and restore order to the troubled region. The quest for a solution is not entirely new. Several conferences and workshops have been convoked, yet the situation remains dire.

“For us in the EFCC, like most Nigerians, the concern is on how this crisis continues to defy solutions and fester? How is it that the terrorist groups in the region are able to sustain their operations, acquire more sophisticated weaponry and engage in daring combat with the Nigerian military?

“It would seem that an economy of criminality has developed around terrorism and violent extremism in the region, where actors who are profiting from the chaos do not cherish the return of civil order. How for instance do we explain the activities of supposed non-profit organisations who profess to want to provide succor to the distressed but end up exploiting their misery for financial gains?

“How do we explain the action of unscrupulous actors who hide under the cover of humanitarian activities to fund terrorist groups? These are issues that we must continue to interrogate.

“The EFCC has had cause to prosecute so-called promoters of non-profit organisation who exploited the desperate conditions in the North-East to profiteer. I am sure many of you are aware of a lady that is called Mama Boko Haram, who at the peak of the insurgency positioned herself as a credible intermediary for the insurgents, but is now in jail for exploiting the distressed citizens of the North-East for personal gain.

“Part of the focus of the EFCC in the quest to tackle terrorism and violent extremism in that region is to follow the funds trail of critical actors in the region and cutting off the supply line of illicit funds to known criminal groups. This responsibility has seen the Commission pay more attention to the movement of funds by NPOs in the region, who are now required to make a declaration to the EFCC.

“Some of our discoveries recently into investigating some of these platforms was mind bugging, and we thought Binance was a major one, yes a major one and we are prosecuting them but much more, other platforms we have discovered, of course you are aware that EFCC has to freeze over a thousand account, and it will shock you what some of those accounts are used for, and some of them are used to fund terrorism activities.

“You can imagine the dimension the whole problem is taking and so, it is important for us to adopt the use of technology, and that is what we are going to do to see how we can adopt technology to be able to track every Naira,” he said.

Also, in a goodwill speech, Dr Musa Aliyu, SAN, chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, (ICPC), said, “ICPC is fully committed to contributing its expertise and resources to this fight. We are prepared to intensify our efforts in financial oversight, enhance our investigative and prosecutorial capacities, and work closely with all stakeholders to disrupt the financial networks that fuel terrorism.”