Our Reporter 

Nigeria’s development continues to suffer massive setbacks as illicit financial flows, corruption, tax evasion, procurement fraud and other forms of financial crimes divert resources meant for infrastructure, education, healthcare, job creation and improved living standards, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) has warned.

The Executive Director of ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, raised the alarm in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, at a two-day training workshop for journalists and civil society organisations (CSOs) on combating illicit financial flows (IFFs).

The workshop, organised by a coalition of non-governmental organisations led by ANEEJ, with support from the European Union (EU) and SeCFin Africa, a France-based organisation, is themed “Strengthening CSOs and Media Capacity to Contribute to the Fight Against Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs).”

Ugolor said IFFs remained one of the most persistent obstacles to Nigeria’s economic development, noting that billions of naira that should be deployed to improve public services and lift communities out of poverty were continually lost through illegal and fraudulent financial practices.

He identified corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, trade misinvoicing, procurement fraud, profit shifting and other illicit practices as major channels through which resources were diverted from productive use.

“The scale of these losses on a yearly basis should trouble everyone of us, because the burden falls hardest on the ordinary citizens,” he said.

According to him, resources that should have expanded public services and lifted communities out of poverty were instead diverted from national and state development priorities.

He said the consequences were evident in weaker public institutions, declining trust in government, widening inequality and worsening insecurity.

Ugolor cited the troubled Benin-Sapele-Warri road project as an example of the consequences of alleged financial mismanagement and weak accountability in public infrastructure projects.

He alleged that the contractor handling the project had abandoned the road after reportedly receiving N140 billion, lamenting that the development had subjected Nigerians to untold hardship.

“The Benin-Sapele-Warri failed road project has caused untold hardship to Nigerians. This is a clear case of illicit financial flows as the people continue to suffer,” he said.

The ANEEJ chief noted that Nigeria had established several legal, policy and institutional mechanisms to tackle financial crimes, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Code of Conduct Bureau and Bureau of Public Procurement.

He, however, regretted that illicit financial practices continued despite the existence of these institutions and legal frameworks.

According to him, the persistence of IFFs demonstrates that laws and government agencies alone cannot effectively tackle the problem without active citizen engagement, civil society vigilance and informed public scrutiny.

Ugolor consequently charged journalists to strengthen their capacity to investigate financial crimes and expose illicit financial networks, stressing that the media had a critical role to play in holding powerful individuals and institutions accountable.

He said the nature of illicit financial flows was becoming increasingly sophisticated, requiring journalists to understand beneficial ownership, money-laundering typologies, digital and cross-border transactions, international financial networks and data-driven investigative techniques.

“Your responsibility goes beyond reporting events as they happen. It includes helping ordinary citizens make sense of issues that shape their lives, digging beneath the surface to uncover further details and illicit transactions, and amplifying voices that would otherwise go unheard,” he said.

He urged participants to use the knowledge acquired at the workshop to produce evidence-based and credible investigations capable of driving transparency, accountability and policy reforms.

Also speaking, Operations Coordinator of the SeCFin Africa Project, Philippe Pacaud, warned that illicit financial flows posed not only an economic threat but also a security risk.

Pacaud said some illicit funds from Nigeria and other African countries were being used to finance terrorism and other criminal activities.

“It is known to us that illicit funds flows are used to sponsor terrorism and we must tackle it immediately,” he said.

Representing the EFCC, the Head of its Corporate Affairs Department, Theresa Nwosu, stressed the need for stronger synergy and coordination among anti-corruption agencies, CSOs and the media.

Nwosu said greater collaboration was necessary to effectively identify, investigate and disrupt illicit financial activities.

In a presentation titled “Understanding Illicit Financial Flows and Financial Crimes in Nigeria,” the SecFin Africa Programme Representative, Prof. Abdullahi Shehu, defined IFFs as cross-border movements of funds that are illegally earned, transferred, owned or utilised.

He said such financial outflows were often facilitated by weaknesses in law enforcement, institutional coordination and accountability systems, resulting in the loss of public resources and erosion of state capacity.

Shehu identified three major characteristics of IFFs as the illegality of the source or origin of funds, illegality of their movement or transfer, and illegality of their ownership or use.

He also distinguished IFFs from money laundering, explaining that while money laundering involves proceeds that are illegal, IFFs can also involve funds that were legally earned but subsequently moved or used illegally.

Shehu said combating IFFs was a collective responsibility necessary for strengthening democracy, good governance and sustainable development.

He called for stronger anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism frameworks, improved compliance, effective customer due diligence and Know Your Customer procedures, expanded monitoring of suspicious transactions and tougher penalties for financial crimes.

He also urged government to improve transparency in public finance by publishing budgets, procurement contracts and expenditure records.

Other measures recommended included transparent electronic procurement systems, regular audits of government agencies and stronger oversight by legislative and anti-corruption institutions.

On taxation, Shehu advocated the digitisation of tax collection systems, stronger transfer-pricing regulations for multinational corporations and improved information sharing between tax authorities and financial institutions.

He stressed that the objective should not simply be to increase taxes but to reduce tax-related illicit financial flows and opportunities for evasion.

The professor further urged government agencies to deploy artificial intelligence and data analytics to identify unusual transactions, integrate databases across institutions and monitor cross-border financial movements in real time.

He also advocated expansion of digital payment systems capable of leaving auditable records.

Shehu said tackling illicit financial flows required a coordinated response involving government institutions, the media, CSOs, citizens and international partners.

He warned that without sustained and holistic action, Nigeria and other African countries would continue to lose valuable resources to illicit financial practices while grappling with poverty, insecurity, weak infrastructure and underdevelopment.