President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, July 11, signed the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) Bill into law.
Speaking with newsmen in the State House, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, said NFIU was the Nigerian arm of the global Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), which he said, was hitherto domiciled in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as an autonomous unit operating in the African region.
According to him, the NFIU has the duty to ensure a country’s compliance with international standards on matters bordering on money laundering and terrorism financing.
It is also mandated to check suspicious transactions.
Enang, who added that the unit, which also had the responsibility to receive, request, analyse, and disseminate financial intelligence to relevant agencies, would henceforth be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He continued: “The Act creates NFIU to be domiciled in the Central Bank but to work autonomously and independently. The Act is intended to allow this agency to collate and disseminate financial intelligence to security agencies, intelligent agencies and other agencies which are entitled to receive it.
“And what they collate is for instance transfers of money where money comes from, where it goes and other suspicious transactions including transaction relating to terrorism financing.
“What the law also does is to amend the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act, the Money Laundering Prohibition Act and the Terrorism Prevention Act so that all these functions of financial intelligence which were performed by each of these agencies or which allowed the provision of money for illegal purposes or laundering would now be handled by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit independently.
“And when they collate it they make it available to enforcement and enforcing institutions and that is the essence of the Act and it is available for every person, it has now become law.”
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