… says terrorists use women, dead persons’ SIMs to hide illicit funds
The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit has uncovered an emerging crowdfunding network being exploited by terrorist financiers to raise, move and channel funds to operatives in Nigeria.
The Unit also identified the use of women as proxies in opening bank accounts, as well as the deployment of telephone numbers not registered to account holders or actual beneficiaries for mobile banking and transaction alerts.
According to the NFIU’s 2025 annual report, the emerging crowdfunding model involves foreign-based facilitators using social media platforms to solicit donations under the guise of humanitarian relief, educational assistance or other legitimate causes before moving the proceeds through several layers to terrorist operatives in Nigeria.
The NFIU said the facilitators typically encouraged hundreds of sympathisers to make relatively small contributions, ranging from $50 to $500, through PayPal pages and conventional bank accounts.
