The Federal Government has disclosed the strategy it adopted in containing the activities of the terrorists group Boko Haram.
The government explained that through the collaborative efforts of security agencies, it was able to identify those financing the group and took necessary actions.
The Director of Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Mohammed Jiya disclosed this in Abuja while speaking at the opening session of the 2022 “West Africa Compliance Summit on current and emerging money laundering and terrorist financing issues,” organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).
Jiya said: “In the area of counter terrorism financing, NFIU conducted major analytical operation focused on individuals linked to financing the Boko Haram terrorist group and its affiliates in Nigeria.
“During the analysis, NFIU sent requests to 28 countries and received response from countries, including Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana and Niger.
“The intelligence report submitted to the government led to the formation of inter-agency operation, which resulted in the degrading of Boko Haram activities.”
Jiya spoke of ongoing efforts to improve on efforts to tame money laundering and terror financing in the West African sub-region.
He said: “At NFIU, since taking over the leadership of the Forum of Financial Intelligence Units of GIABA Member States (FFIU GMS), we have taken some steps that will enable effective sharing of information and intelligence to counter money laundering and financing of terrorism which include the Development of West African FIU Information Exchange (WAFFIEX) and Robust Centralized Crime Database System (CCDS) on ML/TF for West African countries which will soon become fully operational.
“I am happy to intimate this gathering that the Chad platform on terrorism financing last week, expanded its membership to 11 countries active members – Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Niger and Benin and observers countries – Ghana, Guinea and Central Africa Republic (CAR)).
“Meetings will now will be holding every three months within the Chad Basin and Sahel countries. This new synergy is good for both experience sharing and operational success of security agencies.”