Nigeria: FG orders banks to freeze assets of terrorism financiers, backs US sanctions
By Zuleihat Owuiye, Nigeria
The Federal Government has directed banks and other financial institutions to freeze assets linked to terrorism financiers, backing new US sanctions on Nigerians and Bureaux De Change accused of funding ISIS.
The Nigerian Sanctions Committee issued the directive on June 25, 2026, after the US Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Lagos-based Mukhtar Adamu Muhammad, 35, and three BDCs under Executive Order 13224 for allegedly moving funds for ISIS-West Africa.
The committee ordered all financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses to comply fully with sanctions obligations, including asset freezing, filing Suspicious Transaction Reports, and reporting matches to authorities.
“Terrorists and their financiers will find no safe haven within Nigeria’s financial system,” the committee stated, adding that the US action signals coordinated efforts to choke off funding networks for terrorist groups.
All three BDCs were already on Nigeria’s Sanctions List updated June 18, 2026. On the same date, FG added six more names: Ibrahim Yakubu Ogirima, Adamu Chiroma, Ibrahim Abubakar, Abdullahi Umar Usman, Babangida Muhammed, Adamu Hammajam, and Abbal Bako & Sons Bureau De Change Limited.
The committee said intelligence and inter-agency investigations found reasonable grounds that those listed “facilitated, financed, supported or contributed to activities of ISWAP and associated terrorist networks.”
Chief of Defence Intelligence Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Undiandeye said Nigeria, working with the US, UK and France, has “decimated and decapitated” ISIS, Boko Haram and other groups. Speaking at the DIA’s Q2 briefing for foreign defence attaches, he stated: “Our forces have assaulted… so much that their logistics, arms and ammunition couriers and other supporting networks have been vanquished. Nigeria is secured.”
The committee commended the Ministry of Justice, Office of National Security Adviser, CBN, DSS, EFCC and NFIU for efforts to cut off terrorist funding, reaffirming Nigeria’s commitment to domestic and international cooperation against terrorism financing.
