Crowdfunding networks, gender proxy accounts and other ways are now being exploited to raise and channel funds for terrorist operations, the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit has uncovered.

The new disclosures are contained in the NFIU’s 2025 Annual Report, obtained by the press from a top official.

The crowdfunding scheme involves foreign-based facilitators using social media platforms to solicit donations under false pretexts of humanitarian relief or educational support, before moving the funds through multiple layers to terrorist operatives in Nigeria.

The NFIU said hundreds of sympathisers were typically encouraged to make deliberately small donations, ranging from $50 to $500, through PayPal pages or conventional bank accounts, to evade automated anti-money laundering alerts.

“The following is a case study on Crowdfunding Network identified during the year: A foreign-based facilitator runs social-media campaigns claiming humanitarian relief or educational support and uses encrypted apps (Telegram, Signal) to share links to convincing PayPal pages or standard bank accounts.

“Hundreds of sympathiser donors contribute $50–$500 each, amounts small enough to avoid most automated AML alerts,” the report read.

The funds are subsequently pooled into a “master account” controlled by a senior member of the group living legally abroad.

“When the pool reaches a threshold, that account becomes the hub for onward movement,” the report stated.

The NFIU said the funds were again fragmented into dozens of smaller payments and transferred through International Money Transfer Operators and remittance applications to a network of money mules in Nigeria.

It identified students, small-business owners and relatives among those used as mules, noting that the strategy was designed to avoid reporting thresholds and obscure the origin and destination of the funds.

“Rather than sending one large transfer, the senior member fractures the funds and sends dozens of sub-threshold payments through IMTOs and remittance apps to a network of money mules in Nigeria; students, small-business owners, or relatives, avoiding reporting triggers.

“Upon receipt, the money was either converted to cash, used to purchase dual-use items such as motorcycles, fertilisers and satellite internet equipment, or transferred through mobile banking channels to logistics managers and field operatives.”

The report described the final stage as the “integration” of the funds into terrorist operational financing.

The Unit also identified the use of gender-based proxy accounts as another emerging terrorist financing technique, with terrorists opening bank accounts in women’s names while male commanders or logistics managers secretly control them.

“Terrorist financiers are opening bank accounts in women’s names while male commanders and logistics managers secretly control them.

“They exploit cultural norms that make women less likely to be suspected by authorities, using wives, sisters, or female associates as fronts to distance illicit funds from the true operatives.

“This tactic functions as identity laundering: women’s accounts are managed by men who hold ATM cards, mobile-banking credentials, and PINs, while the women often remain unaware of the transactions and volumes,” the report stated.

The report further revealed that terrorist facilitators were using telephone numbers that were not registered to the account holders or actual beneficiaries for mobile banking and transaction alerts.

It said pre-registered SIM cards, numbers registered to deceased persons and SIMs linked to gender-based proxies were being used to break the connection between bank accounts, SIM cards and Bank Verification Numbers.

“Terrorist facilitators use phone numbers for mobile banking or account alerts that are not registered to the account holder or the true beneficiary.

“They bypass the security link between SIM cards and BVNs by using pre-registered SIMs, SIMs registered to deceased people, or SIMs tied to gender-based proxies. This severs the audit trail: when a transaction is flagged, investigators trace the phone to an unrelated person, letting the real facilitator stay anonymous and continue operations,” it stated.

The NFIU also uncovered sophisticated methods of disguising terrorist transactions through detailed or coded narrations.

It said cells, particularly those linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province, used precise transaction descriptions to maintain what analysts described as an internal accounting system.

According to the report, frequent logistics-related payments with detailed narrations were often sent from a single source to multiple recipients, reflecting a structured financial system within the terrorist network.

“Terrorist cells, particularly those linked to ISWAP, routinely use precise, professional-sounding transaction narrations to maintain internal accounting. Operating like “shadow states” with strict bureaucratic controls, they require detailed descriptions so field commanders can justify expenses to central financial controllers. Although truthful narrations appear counterintuitive, they create an internal audit trail; analysts repeatedly observe high-frequency, logistics-related payments with accurate narrations sent from a single source to multiple recipients,” the report said.

The NFIU report added that some facilitators used innocuous words, secret codes and alphanumeric strings in transaction descriptions, sometimes switching between languages, to conceal the purpose of payments and evade automated bank filters.

“Transaction descriptions employ innocuous words, secret codes, or alphanumeric strings to conceal intent. Facilitators use this coded language, often switching languages to evade banks’ automated keyword filters that flag terms like ‘Jihad,’ ‘Arms,’ or ‘Boko.’

“This practice obscures the true purpose of transfers, preventing detection and enabling continued financing,” it said.

It noted that fraud remained a dominant predicate offence, with growing cases of Ponzi schemes, fraudulent crowdfunding arrangements, cryptocurrency-enabled investment scams and hacking-related fraud.

The Unit said the schemes increasingly exploited fintech onboarding gaps, including tiered accounts requiring minimal identification, while digital platforms were used to rapidly recruit victims and move funds.

The report also highlighted persistent vulnerabilities in public sector financial management, including the diversion of state and local government funds through accounts belonging to finance officers and associated third parties.

It identified procurement processes and cash transactions as significant risk areas, saying the latter complicated audit trails and efforts to trace illicit assets.

The NFIU said its findings were translated into targeted advisories, executive alerts and strategic intelligence products to support competent authorities, reporting entities and policy responses.

“Financial Fraud and Investment Scams: Fraud remains a dominant predicate offence, with notable growth in Ponzi schemes, fraudulent crowdfunding arrangements, cryptocurrency-enabled investment scams, and hacking-related fraud (including compromised social media and messaging accounts).

“Analytical reviews during the period examined these trends and informed internal advisories and alerts, some of which remained restricted for operational purposes.

“These schemes increasingly exploit fintech onboarding gaps, including tiered accounts with minimal identification requirements, and leverage digital platforms to rapidly scale victim recruitment and fund movement.

“Corruption and Misappropriation of Public Funds Analysis highlighted persistent vulnerabilities in public sector financial management, including the diversion of state and local government funds through accounts of finance officers and associated third parties.

“Procurement processes remain a significant risk area, while utilisation of cash transactions complicates audit trails and asset tracing efforts,” the report said.

A security expert, Chidi Omeje, called on Nigeria’s security and financial intelligence institutions to enhance their operational strategies to counter the rising sophistication of non-state actors in the country.

Omeje noted that criminal elements are constantly devising new methods to circumvent existing security architecture.

He urged key agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services, and financial regulatory authorities tasked with monitoring banking transactions, to step up their efforts, stay ahead of criminal networks, and track illicit financial flows.

“Every single day, these guys grow in sophistication and desperation, and we must also devise means to bring them to their knees.

“The state must ultimately deal with them. They must follow the money trail to monitor these movements and effectively tackle the situation,” he said.

Omeje emphasised that the government and security apparatus cannot afford to yield ground to criminal groups, insisting that intelligence-driven operations and financial tracking remain critical to safeguarding national security.

Another security analyst, Lawrence Alobi, urged security agencies to step up intelligence sharing and work closely with financial institutions to curb the trend.

Addressing the issue, Alobi emphasised that security agencies must enhance their information gathering to outsmart criminals attempting to evade detection through fraudulent account setups.

“It behoves us now, the security agencies, to intensify intelligence sharing and information gathering, because it is through information that we can get some of these things.

“Security agencies need to work with the banks and also warn them. Any bank found to have connived or aided this act should be sanctioned,” he said.

He further stressed the need for strict compliance and verification procedures within the banking sector to prevent proxies from being used to run illicit accounts.

“The banks themselves must sit up and ensure they properly verify every individual’s identity so that there is a real, verifiable person behind every account, not just someone acting by proxy. Intelligence agencies must go the extra mile to hold banks accountable for any loopholes exploited within their system,” he added.

Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has approved the appointment of Mr. Nathan Angwe as Principal Special Assistant to the Governor on Local Government Affairs, and Mr. Benjamin Aondonenge Ikyereve as Gubernatorial Liaison Officer, GLO, for Tarka Local Government Area.

The appointments were announced on Monday, August 24, 2026.

Angwe, a retired Principal Local Government Inspector, replaces former PSA, Mr. Ioryue Yajir.

A native of Mbayange, Mbaakpough, Mbayion in Gboko LGA, Angwe retired from the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Makurdi.
He served as Local Government Inspector in several LGAs across the state before retiring as a Principal Local Government Inspector.

Ikyereve, a holder of B.Sc in Business Administration, is a former Secretary to the Tarka Local Government Council. He will serve as the Governor’s direct link to Tarka LGA.

Congratulating the appointees, Governor Alia said their appointments reflect “recognition of your distinguished service and proven competence in public administration.”

“It is my belief that drawing from your collective experiences; as a retired Principal Local Government Inspector with vast knowledge of local governance structures across the State, and as a business administrator with deep roots in local government administration, you are certainly not oblivious of your task of strengthening the critical interface between my office and our local government councils,” the Governor stated.

Governor Alia further charged them to ensure seamless coordination, facilitate effective implementation of government policies at the grassroots level, and serve as strategic advisors on matters affecting their communities.

—George Manne Weah Tells NBA in Port Harcourt

I am glad to be here today, attending the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association here in Port Harcourt. With a membership of over One Hundred and Fifty Thousand, the Nigerian Bar is the largest, oldest and one of the most respected professional bodies on our continent.

I want to thank you for choosing a theme as bold as “Beyond Limits.” When I first heard it, I smiled, because if my own life has taught me one thing, it is that limits are very often not the walls we think they are. They are only the edge of what someone has tried so far.

I did not come into this hall as a lawyer, and I will not pretend to be one. I grew up in the ghetto of ‘Gibraltar’ in Monrovia, Liberia, where very few people believed that a boy raised largely by his grandmother would one day stand on the world’s biggest football stages, or take an oath as President of the Republic of Liberia.

I was told, in many quiet and not-so-quiet ways, what the limits of my life were supposed to be. I did not accept them — not out of arrogance, but because the limits placed on us by man are not the same as the limits placed on us by God. Beyond Limits, to me, is not a slogan. It is a living testimony of my life.

I am not here merely to tell you my story, but because what is true for one man can also be true for a profession, and for a continent.

Allow me to speak to you about two things today: first, the Bar and the Bench as guardians of our democracy, and the dangers that threaten that guardianship in West Africa today; and second, what it means for our peoples and our continent to truly go beyond limits — not in slogan, but in substance.

Let me start with a simple truth I came to understand not as a student of law, but as a man who has sat in the highest office of a nation. Democracy does not survive on the strength of elections alone. Elections are the doorway into democracy, not the house itself. What holds the house up — what keeps the roof from collapsing on the people who live inside it — are institutions, and among the most important of these, in every serious nation, is an independent judiciary, protected by a fearless, principled Bar.

And let me be plain about something else, because it is often the more dangerous of the two threats to democracy. The danger is not only that soldiers might seize power in the night, or that a defeated candidate might refuse to leave office. It is also that a leader who arrives in office through a free and fair election can, over time and often gradually, begin to govern like the very dictators the ballot was meant to guard against — leaning on the judiciary until it bends to his will, and strong-arming the legislature until it becomes an echo chamber rather than a check on his power. A tyrant with a certificate of return is still a tyrant. Democracy, properly understood, does not end on election night. It is tested every single day afterward, in how power treats the courts and the parliament that exist to restrain it.

I was glad to learn, in preparing to come before you, that your own outgoing President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, said something not long ago that I found myself nodding, as though he had seen my own notes before I wrote them. He said: “Democracy cannot survive on strong men. It survives on strong institutions.” That sentence deserves to be written above the door of every parliament and every courtroom in West Africa — a conviction that every serious African who has held power, and hopes to build something that stays after him, must eventually arrive at.

The rule of law is not an abstract phrase for law school lecture halls. It is the practical guarantee that a citizen’s rights do not depend on who is in office or what favor they can secure — that a journalist, a trader, or a student in Port Harcourt, Monrovia, or Bamako has the same protection under the law as a minister or a general.

The moment that guarantee weakens, everything else in a nation weakens with it: investment, security, public trust, and peace itself.

And here is the uncomfortable part: this danger does not only come from the coup-makers who seize power in the night. It also comes from governments that call themselves democratic — through budgets manipulation, wrong appointments, and pressure on judges, and deciding that courts should be a convenience rather than a check.

We have seen nations where a judiciary’s own budget must first pass through the executive it is meant to hold accountable. We have seen special courts created not to deliver justice but to secure political outcomes, and dozens of judges dismissed in a single stroke by presidential decree. And we have seen, across our region since 2020, an unsettling pattern of soldiers stepping over constitutions altogether.

I raise these examples because this Bar to which you belong and have gathered here in your thousands, cannot afford to assume that Nigeria, or Liberia, or any of us, is somehow immune. A court’s decision must mean what it says, without anyone’s political permission — it is what protects a nation from sliding, gradually but progressively, into the very conditions we condemn when soldiers do it with guns.

This is why I say to you: the Nigerian Bar Association is not merely a professional association negotiating welfare for its members. You are a standing sentinel of this Republic’s democracy. When the Bar is silent, courts become easier to be captured. When the Bar speaks with one voice, as guardians of the bench, the executive branch think twice before even dreaming of interference.

That tradition is not decoration. It is duty — because protecting the independence of your courts, and the rights of the ordinary Nigerian citizen, is protecting democracy itself, here in Nigeria and across our region.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me turn to the second thing I wish to leave with you: Beyond Limits is not only about defending what we have. It is about reaching for what we have not yet built. I have never believed that Africa’s limits are a matter of talent — I have stood beside the finest footballers our continent has produced, and sat at negotiating tables with heads of state from every corner of the earth. We Africans are not short of brilliance. We are short, too often, of the infrastructure and the organized will to let that brilliance connect to itself with us.

This room is proof of it. The Nigerian Bar counts among its numbers some of the finest legal minds in the world, many of whom have built extraordinary careers abroad — in London, in Washington, in the Gulf. That is nothing to be ashamed of, but it is something we must be strategic about. For too long we have called this only “brain drain,” as though it is purely a loss. I ask you to think instead about brain circulation — pulling that expertise back into nation-building without demanding anyone abandon what they have earned and learned abroad.

Our African diaspora already sends home well over one hundred billion dollars a year in remittances alone, more than the foreign aid and investment Africa receives combined. Imagine that same energy formally invited into legal reform and judicial modernization, as a deliberate national strategy.

Because the fight against poor governance and economic deprivation is not one we can afford to enter with half our talent unaccounted for. A Nigerian-trained lawyer on an arbitration panel in Paris, or advising a global institution in New York, is not lost talent — it is talent operating at the highest global standard, available to be called home if we organize the bridge for it to cross.

This, too, is what going Beyond Limits must mean for us: refusing to accept that our infrastructural and governance challenges, are any kind of ceiling on what is possible. I did not accept the limits the slum seemed to set for me.

I say this to you not as a theory but as something I have lived. In November 2023, when the early, provisional results of our run-off election made clear which way our country had voted, I did not wait for the count to be completed or for the final results to be formally announced before I picked up the telephone to congratulate my successor.

There were those around me who suggested patience — who argued that a sitting president owes it to himself to contest every figure until the very last vote is certified.

I chose otherwise. I chose to concede while the counting was still underway, because I have always believed, and still believe, that the will of the people must stand above the ambition of any one man in a democratic setting. Once elections do not follow democratic precepts, it is very dangerous for the peace and security of a country.

I am told that when this Association extended its invitation to me, its citation spoke directly of that decision — of a leader who chose to put his country before his own ambition. I want to thank the Nigerian Bar Association for that recognition.

It means a great deal to me, not because I need reminding of what I did, but because it tells me that this Bar understands precisely what is at stake when we insist that no office, however high, is worth more than the peace and the will of the people who conferred it.

If a small nation like mine can insist on that standard for itself, then surely this continent, with all its wealth of talent gathered in this very hall today, can insist on standards beyond the limits others have too often assumed for us.

Let me say, then, not only as a former president, but as a brother — a fellow traveler on this great continent of Africa, someone who understands deeply what it means to look at a wall of obstacles and decide to climb over it. When your leadership invited me to speak on the theme Beyond Limits, it resonated with the very core of my life’s journey.

To go beyond limits is not a phrase reserved for athletes who break records or politicians who win elections. It is a daily mandate for every lawyer, every judge, every leader, and every citizen who refuses to let their present circumstances dictate their ultimate destination. Limits, more often than not, are imagination born out of fear, of history, or of the low expectations others have placed upon us.

You already know part of my story — that boy from the slums of Monrovia. By every worldly measure, that boy was not supposed to play on the grandest stages of world football, let alone win the Ballon d’Or. He was certainly not expected to one day lead his nation, democratically, as president. So when I tell you that limits can be broken, I am not offering you a theory. I am offering you a life. How do we break these boundaries? We do it by anchoring our lives in five timeless, unshakeable values.

The first is discipline. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. In football, talent without discipline gets you benched, or cut from the team entirely. In the law, brilliance without discipline leads to compromised justice. Discipline is the quiet commitment to doing what is right, what is necessary, and what is ethical, even when no one is watching.

Coupled with discipline is the raw necessity of hard work, because there are no elevators to success — you must take the stairs. To push past the barriers of systemic corruption, weak infrastructure, or institutional inertia, we must be willing to outwork our problems. As legal minds, your hard work secures the liberties of the common man and fortifies the rule of law.

Yet our labor means nothing if it is not governed by respect — respect for the dignity of every human being, for the sanctity of our institutions, and for the constitution that binds us.

True leaders do not go beyond limits by tearing others down. We go beyond limits by lifting others up, by respecting diversity of thought, and by upholding the integrity of the judicial process.

When you push against limits, the limits push back. That is where perseverance becomes your greatest weapon. You will face defeats. I lost elections before I ever won one. I lost matches before I ever raised a trophy.

Perseverance is the internal voice that says, “I will rise again.” For the legal profession in Nigeria and across Africa, perseverance means standing firm for justice even when the political or social winds blow fiercely against you.

Most importantly, we cannot transcend human limits without being spiritually strong. We must acknowledge a power greater than ourselves.

Spiritual strength gives us moral clarity when our choices are blurred. It gives conscience to our intellect and soul to our ambition. And it reminds us that every position of leadership we hold is a temporary stewardship, granted by the Almighty, to serve His people.

My distinguished friends, Nigeria holds a key to the promise of our whole continent. When the Nigerian Bar Association decides to go beyond limits, the legal architecture of Africa itself grows stronger. Let us commit today to breaking the chains of mediocrity — applying discipline to our craft, hard work to our duty, respect to our peers, perseverance to our trials, and faith to our foundational values.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let us all stand for true justice — for the rule of law that builds greater unity, that makes a nation more attractive to investment, and that creates a stable environment in place of internal conflict.

True justice is blind. It does not know politics. It does not see family or friendship. It knows only the truth, and it interprets the law the same way whether or not anyone is watching.

Let us all interpret the law fairly, and apply it more effectively. Let justice prevail, and be done to all men and women, rather than spending our energy on division. The true measure of a lawyer is not how many cases you have won, how many titles you hold, or how much you earn. It is this: when the country needs courage, do you have the courage to stand? When justice needs a voice, will you give it one? And when the law itself is threatened, will you go beyond every limit to defend it? The law must never be an instrument of chaos. It must never become a weapon of war. It must remain what it was always meant to be: an instrument of remedy, of peace, of unity, and of accountability — an instrument for humanity, for transparency, and for truth.

My dear members of Nigerian Bar Association, I invite you to think of yourselves as referees who interpret the law fairly and plainly. As a lawyer, you must be able to protect the law whether the voice before you is rich, poor, or powerful.

As the law provides, you must be able to stand in defense of those who cannot defend themselves. You must ensure that due process is honored. Let us respect the law, and let us interpret it faithfully. I say to you, as with Lady Justice herself: carry the scales of substance and of justice, and let nothing tip them but the truth.

My brothers and sisters, Nigerians depend on you. West Africa depends on you. Africa depends on you. The world depends on you. Democracy depends on you. And free elections depend on you.

So I say to all of you here today: Africa must continue in peaceful coexistence, and we must all stand up for the rule of law. Stand up for fairness. Stand up for impartiality. Stand up for gender equality. Stand up for equality. Stand up for humanity. Stand up for peace and for democracy. Stand up against discrimination. Stand up for accountability. Stand up for free and fair elections.

Bravo, Nigerian Bar Association.
God bless the Nigerian Bar Association, and may God bless our beloved Africa.

I thank you.

Keynote Address
By George Manneh Weah,
Former President of the Republic of Liberia
At The 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association
Theme: “Beyond Limits”
Port Harcourt, Rivers State. August 23, 2026.