NFIU flags crowdfunding network financing terrorism

Key facts

The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit says it uncovered a foreign crowdfunding network linked to terrorism financing.

The agency also identified the use of proxy accounts to move or conceal illicit funds.

According to the NFIU, terrorists used women in efforts to disguise financial activity.

SIM cards registered to dead people were also allegedly used to hide illicit funds.

The findings were reported by BusinessDay Nigeria on 25 August 2026.

Why it matters

The findings point to several methods allegedly used to obscure terrorism financing, including overseas crowdfunding, proxy financial accounts and SIM cards tied to dead people. Identifying these channels is significant because they can conceal the people controlling illicit funds. However, the available report does not state how much money was involved, where the crowdfunding network operated or whether any accounts were frozen.

Nigeria’s financial intelligence unit has uncovered what it described as a foreign crowdfunding network and proxy accounts used to finance terrorism, according to a report by BusinessDay Nigeria.

The NFIU said terrorists also used women and SIM cards registered to dead people to conceal illicit funds. The available evidence does not explain the roles allegedly assigned to the women or how the SIM cards were connected to financial transactions.

The disclosure identifies a combination of foreign fundraising and domestic concealment methods. Proxy accounts can separate funds from the people allegedly directing them, while the reported use of identities linked to dead people could make the controllers of transactions harder to identify. The source, however, provides no details about the financial institutions or crowdfunding services involved.

It is not yet known how much money passed through the reported network, which foreign countries were connected to it, how many accounts or SIM cards were identified, or which terrorist organisations allegedly benefited. The evidence supplied also does not say whether suspects have been arrested, funds recovered, accounts restricted or prosecutions initiated.

Further information from the NFIU would be needed to establish the scale of the operation and any regulatory or law-enforcement response. For now, the agency’s reported findings indicate that crowdfunding channels, intermediaries and identity-linked telecommunications tools were allegedly combined to hide the origin or control of terrorism-related funds.