NFIU To Provide Timely, Actionable Financial Intelligence To Security Agencies
By: Elizabeth Christopher
The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU says it will to provide Law Enforcement Agencies with timely, credible, reliable and actionable financial intelligence needed to combat crime and terrorism.
The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU Hafsat Abubakar Bakari made the pledge at the NFIU-Law Enforcement Agencies Summit in Abuja, Nigeria capital.
Bakari who noted that money is at the centre of crimes and terrorism said the only sustainable approach to crime prevention and disruption is identifying where these funds are and denying criminal actors access to them. “We can only achieve this if we have efficient and effective systems for conducting financial analysis and this Ladies and Gentlemen is the ultimate goal of the NFIU, to provide you in a timely manner, with credible, reliable and actionable financial intelligence”.
She therefore sought the collaboration of law enforcement agencies to deploy advanced technology to combat the increasing complexity of financial crimes.
to“NFIU plays a very specific role within Nigeria’s security architecture. We do not investigate, we do not arrest and we do not prosecute. This allows us to focus particularly on our areas of core competence, which is receiving financial reports, analysing these reports to follow the money trail and providing you with our best understanding of the underlying criminal offences”
She stressed the need for improved use of technology across law enforcement agencies and the integration of various databases to combat crime activities.
“There needs to be concerted effort to improve the utilisation of technology tools across all the competent authorities. While I recognise that many agencies have made significant investments in procuring and establishing databases and other platforms, interconnectivity remains a challenge. To become more effective, we should ensure that all our databases and platforms are built to common standards and shared protocols which will allow for seamless integration and connectivity. We should also prioritise the integration of the various identity databases to enable us to integrate financial flows with communication data and case records”
“Building these integrated systems and deploying new tools, utilising artificial intelligence and machine learning has the potential to transform the speed at which we can intercept and disrupt criminal networks”.
Mrs. Bakari emphasized the need to develop a counter-narrative which promotes the excellent work and results that all law enforcement agencies and security services in Nigeria are delivering from combating terrorism and banditry to disruption of drug trafficking networks and the fight against serious organised criminal group.
Olusola Akintonde
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