The Nigerian Monetary Intelligence Unit has raised alarm over suspicious transactions amounting to N48 billion wired to Dubai and Hong Kong between 2021 and 2024, facilitated by Nigerian banks.
NFIU disclosed this in a just lately launched report.
The report revealed that 401 suspicious monetary transactions value N48 billion have been linked to each areas between January 2021 and September 2024.
An extra evaluation of the report confirmed that whereas solely 185 of the STRs have been related to Dubai, they accounted for the majority of the entire worth—N29.6 billion; the remaining 216 STRs have been traced to Hong Kong, valued at N18.6 billion.
In 2021, solely two STRs, valued at N42m have been reported. By 2024, that quantity had soared to 202 STRs with a mixed worth of N32bn.
The NFIU blamed this development on a mixture of complicated regulatory loopholes, the proliferation of shell corporations and offshore accounts, and weak enforcement mechanisms in each Dubai and Hong Kong.
In mild of the above, NFIU issued a robust warning to Nigerian monetary establishments to reinforce due diligence.
Based on NFIU, Nigeria will be plunged right into a monetary mess if the scenario is left unchecked.
“The NFIU finds it pertinent to challenge this advisory to related stakeholders to make use of enhanced due diligence within the detection, deterrence, and prevention of abuse of the monetary system via these hotspots.
“Reporting suspicious transactions and actions flowing from these jurisdictions is crucial to defending the Nigerian monetary system and contributing to the worldwide battle in opposition to cash laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing,” the report acknowledged.