NFIU Urges Banks and Fintechs to Share AML Intelligence

In Short

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, is pushing banks, fintech firms, insurers, and crypto businesses to share intelligence under a new public private partnership framework.

What Happened

At a private sector engagement in Lagos, the NFIU asked financial institutions and technology providers to help shape a proposed Joint Financial Intelligence Collaboration, or JFIC.

The idea is a structured way for regulators and private firms to exchange information on suspected money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit financial flows. Intelligence sharing here means sending verified risk signals and patterns, not just filing separate reports that stay in silos.

The session was held with support from the British High Commission and the Convention for Business Integrity. It brought together banks, insurance companies, fintech operators, Virtual Asset Service Providers, and other stakeholders.

NFIU General Counsel Felix Obiamalu, representing the agency’s CEO, said the framework is designed to improve how quickly suspicious activity can be detected and disrupted. A keynote speaker, former Egmont Group chair Xolisile Khanyile, also stressed that trust and shared ownership are key for these public private models to work.

The push comes shortly after the NFIU said it deployed its financial intelligence software, Ilivro, to Guinea-Bissau’s financial intelligence unit. The agency described Ilivro as a secure system for electronic receipt, analysis, and dissemination of reports, in other words, a pipeline that turns raw reports into usable leads.

Why It Matters

For fintechs and banks in Nigeria, tighter anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing expectations increasingly shape product design, onboarding, and transaction monitoring. This is the behind the scenes screening that flags risky users and payments.

A formal JFIC could reduce duplication, speed up investigations, and improve feedback loops from regulators to compliance teams. But it also raises practical questions about data governance, confidentiality, and how smaller fintechs can meet the operational burden of more real-time collaboration.

Crypto related businesses and VASPs are likely to feel this strongly, since regulators globally are pushing harder on traceability and reporting. If implemented well, shared intelligence can help clean up the ecosystem without blocking legitimate transactions.