Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has uncovered a growing crowdfunding network used to finance terrorist activities in Nigeria, with funds allegedly routed through accounts belonging to deceased persons.
The agency disclosed in its 2025 Annual Report that terrorist financiers also rely on bank accounts registered in women’s names and phone numbers linked to third parties to hide the movement of illicit funds.
According to the report, foreign-based facilitators launch social media campaigns disguised as humanitarian relief or educational support to attract donations from unsuspecting sympathisers.
The NFIU said the facilitators share payment links through encrypted platforms such as Telegram and Signal, where donors contribute between $50 and $500 to avoid triggering anti-money laundering alerts.
“The following is a case study on Crowdfunding Network identified during the year: A foreign-based facilitator runs social media campaigns claiming humanitarian relief or educational support and uses encrypted apps (Telegram, Signal) to share links to convincing PayPal pages or standard bank accounts. ‘Hundreds of sympathiser donors contribute $50–$500 each, amounts small enough to avoid most automated AML alerts,’” the report stated.
The agency explained that the donations are pooled into a master account controlled by a senior network member abroad before being broken into smaller transfers sent to money mules in Nigeria through International Money Transfer Operators and remittance applications.
It said the recipients, including students, small business owners and relatives, may withdraw the cash, purchase dual-use items such as motorcycles, fertilisers and satellite internet equipment, or transfer the funds to logistics managers and field operatives.
The report also revealed that terrorist financiers increasingly use bank accounts opened in women’s names while male commanders secretly control the ATM cards, mobile banking credentials and PINs.
“They exploit cultural norms that make women less likely to be suspected by authorities, using wives, sisters, or female associates as fronts to distance illicit funds from the true operatives,” the report stated.
The NFIU further warned that facilitators use pre-registered SIM cards, phone numbers linked to deceased persons and third-party proxies to weaken the audit trail between bank accounts, mobile numbers and Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs).
The report also found that terrorist groups, particularly ISWAP, use detailed transaction narrations to maintain internal financial records, while others rely on coded descriptions and multiple languages to evade automated bank monitoring systems.
Beyond terrorism financing, the agency identified a rise in Ponzi schemes, fraudulent crowdfunding, cryptocurrency investment scams and hacking-related fraud driven by weaknesses in fintech onboarding processes.
The NFIU said persistent diversion of public funds, procurement abuses and heavy reliance on cash transactions remain major financial crime risks, adding that its findings have been converted into intelligence reports and advisories to support law enforcement agencies and policymakers.
