By Lizzy Chirkpi
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has called for deeper collaboration among governments, civil society organisations, financial institutions and development partners to strengthen efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing across Africa.
Olukoyede made the call on Thursday while declaring open the Third African High-Level Civil Society Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) Conference 2026 in Abuja, stressing that tackling the growing threats requires collective action beyond legal and institutional frameworks.
Represented by the Director of the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML), Harry Erin, the EFCC chairman said sustained partnerships founded on trust, dialogue and shared responsibility remain critical to addressing illicit financial flows and terrorism financing.
“Responding effectively to the threats posed by terrorism and money laundering requires not only robust legal and institutional frameworks but strong partnerships built on trust, dialogue and shared responsibility,” he said.
Addressing participants from across the continent, Olukoyede observed that Africa continues to face the challenges of terrorist financing, violent extremism, organised crime and illicit financial flows, warning that the threats undermine peace, weaken democratic institutions, discourage investment and divert critical resources away from development.
Speaking on the conference theme, “Implementing FATF Recommendation 8 Correctly: Practices, Lessons Learned and Opportunities for Reform,” he clarified that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendation is designed to protect the non-profit sector from abuse by terrorist financiers rather than impose unnecessary restrictions on legitimate organisations.
“Recommendation 8 is not about regulating or restricting all non-profit organisations. It is about identifying organisations that may be vulnerable to terrorist financing and applying focused, proportionate and risk-based measures while protecting legitimate humanitarian activities,” he said.
Olukoyede said Nigeria’s implementation of Recommendation 8 has been driven by close cooperation among the EFCC, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and civil society organisations.
According to him, the collaboration facilitated a comprehensive National Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment of the non-profit sector, enabling regulators to identify genuine risks while avoiding unnecessary regulatory burdens on legitimate organisations.
“Our experience reinforces an important lesson: effective implementation of FATF Recommendation 8 depends on trust—trust between regulators and civil society, governments and development partners, built through transparency, consultation and mutual respect,” he said.
The EFCC chairman reaffirmed the commission’s commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework while supporting broader continental efforts to protect Africa’s financial system from illicit activities.
In her welcome address, Executive Director of Spaces for Change, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, reflected on a decade of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing advocacy in Nigeria, describing the journey as demanding but rewarding.
She noted that discussions between government institutions and non-profit organisations were initially characterised by distrust and resistance.
“When we started engaging this issue, the debates were hard, tough and difficult, with governments and non-profit organisations being very defensive,” she said.
Ibezim-Ohaeri commended the EFCC for initiating the first structured dialogue between civil society organisations and Nigeria’s AML/CFT security architecture in 2019, describing the engagement as a turning point that has continued to strengthen cooperation and mutual understanding.
Also speaking, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Spaces for Change, Samuel Diminas, expressed concern over the scale of illicit financial flows from the continent, noting that Africa loses more than $88 billion annually.
“These are not abstract numbers. They represent schools that remain unbuilt, hospitals left unequipped and opportunities denied to millions,” he said.
Diminas urged governments, regulators, civil society and international partners to work together to safeguard both financial integrity and civic space, insisting that collective action remains the most effective response to illicit finance in Africa.
Nigeria’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework received a major boost with the enactment of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 and the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, both signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2022. The reforms aligned the country’s legal framework with the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations, strengthened compliance with international standards and addressed deficiencies identified by global watchdogs. The legislative changes also contributed to Nigeria’s eventual removal from the FATF grey list after the country demonstrated significant progress in strengthening its AML/CFT regime.