By Benson Daniel
Deposit Money Banks accounted for about 92 per cent of all Suspicious Transaction Reports submitted to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit in 2025, highlighting the dominant role of the banking sector in Nigeria’s financial crime monitoring and reporting system.
The NFIU disclosed in its 2025 Annual Report that reporting entities submitted a total of 42,082 Suspicious Transaction Reports during the year. Of this figure, deposit money banks accounted for 38,715 reports, representing approximately 92 per cent of the total.
The agency also received 41,716,214 Currency Transaction Reports and 10,513 Suspicious Activity Reports during the period, reflecting the scale of financial transactions being monitored across the country.
The figures show that banks remain at the centre of Nigeria’s anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing framework, largely because of their extensive customer networks, transaction volumes and regulatory obligations to monitor financial activities.
Other financial institutions submitted 2,185 Suspicious Transaction Reports, while Designated Non Financial Businesses and Professions contributed 1,029 reports. Capital market operators and insurance companies filed 104 reports, while Virtual Asset Service Providers submitted 49 reports during the year.
The dominance of banks was also evident in Suspicious Activity Reports. Financial institutions filed 8,313 of the 10,513 SARs received by the NFIU in 2025, further demonstrating the sector’s leading position in identifying and reporting potentially illicit financial activities.
The NFIU’s data provides insight into the agency’s growing role in detecting financial activities that could be connected to money laundering, fraud, terrorism financing and other forms of financial crime.
The high level of reporting by banks also reflects the obligations placed on financial institutions under Nigeria’s anti money laundering framework. Banks are required to monitor transactions, identify unusual activities and submit reports where transactions or customer activities raise reasonable suspicion.
Beyond suspicious transaction reporting, banks accounted for approximately 89.2 per cent of the more than 41.7 million Currency Transaction Reports received by the NFIU in 2025. Deposit money banks submitted 37,214,139 of the reports, while other financial institutions contributed more than four million.
The volume of reports demonstrates the significant amount of financial intelligence generated through Nigeria’s formal banking system. It also places greater responsibility on banks to strengthen transaction monitoring systems and ensure that suspicious activities are identified and reported promptly.
For regulators and law enforcement agencies, the information contained in these reports provides an important basis for analysing financial flows and identifying patterns that may require further investigation.
However, the fact that a transaction is reported as suspicious does not by itself establish that a customer or transaction is involved in criminal activity. Suspicious transaction reports are intelligence and compliance tools that enable competent authorities to assess transactions and determine whether further investigation is warranted.
The NFIU’s 2025 figures therefore underline both the importance of Nigeria’s banking sector in financial intelligence gathering and the need to strengthen reporting across other sectors of the economy.
As financial transactions increasingly move across banks, fintech platforms, digital assets and other channels, regulators face the challenge of ensuring that emerging financial services maintain effective systems for detecting and reporting suspicious activities.
The development also reinforces the importance of cooperation among financial institutions, regulators and law enforcement agencies in protecting Nigeria’s financial system from abuse.
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