Abuja: The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) on Monday in Abuja commenced a three-day stocktaking mutual evaluation meeting focused on converting financial intelligence into prosecutions and asset recovery. The ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Aliyu, SAN, said this at the opening of the exercise, held in preparation for Nigeria’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 3rd Round Mutual Evaluation Exercise. Aliyu, represented by the Commission’s Secretary, Mr Clifford Oparaodu, said the exercise would test how effectively ICPC investigations were converting financial intelligence into prosecutions, asset recovery and stronger enforcement outcomes.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the stocktake provided an internal mirror to measure performance under the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, POCA 2022 and POCR 2024 regulations. The Commission had made parallel financial investigations mandatory in every corruption case to strengthen the tracing of illicit funds and recovery efforts. The exercise would drill deeper into operational performance and assess Nigeria’s enforcement effectiveness, focusing on FATF Immediate Outcomes 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8 for institutional assessment.
He said these included risk understanding, international cooperation, financial intelligence use, effectiveness of money laundering investigations and asset recovery, adding that participants would assess operational implementation. On corruption risks, participants would assess whether the ICPC and sister agencies were aligning investigations with Nigeria’s national risk profile and identified priority threats. For cross-border crime, the team would review formal Mutual Legal Assistance channels and informal intelligence networks to assess Nigeria’s capacity for international cooperation.
The goal was to demonstrate that Nigeria could swiftly share information, support investigations and secure convictions through effective cooperation with international partners. A major focus will be on financial intelligence under Immediate Outcome 6. The question before the room: are agencies not just generating reports, but actually using them to trace illicit flows and freeze assets before they disappear? Enforcement would receive significant scrutiny under Immediate Outcomes 7 and 8, with Nigeria expected to demonstrate results from relevant money laundering laws and regulations.
He urged visiting Country Experts to be blunt in their assessment, saying their feedback would help Nigeria close gaps, clean up statistics and sharpen strategies before the main evaluation. The commission had aligned with the NFIU’s strategy by making parallel financial investigations mandatory in every corruption case handled by its investigators. The ICPC now leveraged the Corporate Affairs Commission Beneficial Ownership Register to expose corporate shells and strengthened systems for managing recovered assets.
The Chief Executive Officer of NFIU, Hajia Hafsat Bakari, highlighted that the exercise was designed to measure how effectively anti-corruption agencies converted financial intelligence into concrete enforcement outcomes. Represented by Dr Emmanuel Sotande, an NFIU official, Bakari said the exercise was not about fault-finding but about assessing institutional preparedness ahead of Nigeria’s next FATF assessment. The core objective was to track the full value chain of intelligence use, from information supplied by the NFIU to enforcement outcomes.
She emphasized that the timing was critical, noting that Nigeria was preparing for its 3rd Round Mutual Evaluation 2027 and needed institutional readiness. The framework for the stocktake was developed by the NFIU specifically to enable agencies to evaluate their preparedness and identify areas requiring improvement before assessment. She called for stronger collaboration, warning that the goal was to ensure Nigeria did not slip back onto the FATF grey list when the evaluation was concluded in 2027.