The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, have commenced a three-day stocktake to assess the country’s preparedness for the Mutual Evaluation Exercise  of the Financial Action Task Force, FATF,  on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing ,  scheduled to take place in 2027.

The stocktake, which began on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at the EFCC’ corporate Headquarters in Abuja, will continue on Wednesday, September 30, and October 2, 2026.

The exercise will bring together officials of both agencies and relevant stakeholders to review progress, identify gaps and strengthen inter-agency cooperation ahead of the mutual evaluation.

In his opening remarks, EFCC’s Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed that the stocktake was a demonstration of the country’s commitment to meeting international standards on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.

Represented by the Secretary to the Commission, Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda, Olukoyede stated that, “This event is a demonstration of our shared commitment to achieving full compliance with the anti-money laundering thresholds, stipulated by the FATF, in strengthening Nigeria’s Anti-Money Laundering, Countering the Financing of Terrorism/Counter Proliferation Financing Framework.”

For non-compliance with FATF’s AML/CFT/CPFF regulations, the global watchdog in 2022, classified Nigeria among the countries requiring its enhanced monitoring, designated as Grey List. With improved compliance with AML/CFT/CPFF frameworks FATF, provisionally removed Nigeria from its Grey List on October 24, 2025. Grey listing comes with a variety of untoward consequences on the countries so listed. As a result, Olukoyede called for all hands to be on deck to avoid the country’s return to the FATF Grey List.

“It is unimaginable that Nigeria returns to the Grey List.   Issues for consideration today include use of financial intelligence, asset tracing, recovery and management, money laundering, investigation and prosecution,” he said.

Olukoyede described the stocktake as an exercise that would provide an opportunity for the country to demonstrate the progress it has made since its removal from the FATF Grey List and consolidate at the end of the Mutual Evaluation.

“Fundamentally, this exercise offers us an opportunity to retrospect and determine what is working at residual cost therein to enable us to redirect resources as appropriate at the end of the Mutual Evaluation exercise,” he said, adding that the Commission remained committed to strengthening Nigeria’s financial system and sustaining its anti-money laundering efforts.

“Since Nigeria was removed from the FATF Grey List, we have scaled up our Anti-Money Laundering enforcement activities, recovering of proceeds of crimes, (Recovery and Management Act 2022),” he said.

Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, Mrs Hafsat Abubakar Bakari, stated that stocktake was important because of the longstanding relationship between the two institutions and the need to strengthen the country’s collective response to financial crimes.

Bakari, who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Law Enforcement Agencies, Emmanuel Sotande, stated that the stocktake exercise was not about addressing a crisis but about identifying areas where both agencies could improve on their collective performance ahead of the Mutual Evaluation.

According to Bakari, “We gathered here not because there is a problem to solve, but because there is a standard to uphold. Therefore, this exercise provides an opportunity to honestly reflect. It allows us to identify what is working, to also understand where challenges remain and to agree on a particular action required to strengthen our preparedness.”

She stressed that the Mutual Evaluation would go beyond assessing Nigeria’s laws and institutional structures to examining how effectively the country implements them.

“The reality is that international assessors will not only look at our laws, frameworks and structure, they will look at the evidence that we are able to put in place to produce desirable outcomes. They will look for examples of effective investigation, successful prosecutions, asset recovery, inter-agency collaboration and intelligence use to distort criminal activities. Fortunately, these are areas the EFCC has played a central role in shaping Nigeria’s progress in the last year,” she said.

In his presentation, Bakari’s Chief of Staff, Mohammed Shahid Ahmed, outlined key areas Nigeria must address ahead of the 2027 FATF’s Mutual Evaluation.

He recalled that Nigeria’s 2019 Mutual Evaluation, whose report was published in 2021, identified deficiencies that led to the country’s placement on the FATF Grey List. He said the country subsequently implemented measures to address the deficiencies, particularly in financial investigations, identification and recovery of proceeds of crime, international cooperation and cross-border currency declaration, leading to Nigeria’s removal from the Grey List on October 24, 2025.

Ahmed, however, regretted that the country had just little time to consolidate on the gains of the removal, as preparations for the next Mutual Evaluation commenced barely a year after Nigeria’s removal from the Grey List.

He disclosed that the assessment would focus not only on technical compliance with FATF standards but also on effectiveness, including whether the agencies were using financial intelligence, prioritised investigations based on identified risks and demonstrated that their enforcement efforts were producing decisive results.