The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede has called on compliance officers in the Nigeria’s banking sector to embrace technology-driven measures to combat financial crimes.
Olukoyede made the call at the 2025 Annual Stakeholders Conference of the Association of Chief Compliance Officers in the Banking Industry of Nigeria, ACCOBIN, themed “Beyond Compliance: AI, Risk, and the Future of Financial Integrity”.
The EFCC Chairman stated that the traditional compliance measures were no longer sufficient in tackling financial crimes, especially in the face of the threats posed by Artificial Intelligence, AI, and cryptocurrency.
Olukoyede who was represented by Head, Investigations, Lagos Zonal Directorate of the EFCC, Shehu Ala described compliance officers as “unrecognised pillars” of Nigeria’s financial system and critical gatekeepers in the fight against money laundering and economic sabotage.
Highlighting the dual role of artificial intelligence (AI) in detecting and enabling fraud, Olukoyede noted that while AI had drastically improved transaction monitoring by reducing false positives by up to 60% in some jurisdictions, criminals were also deploying the same technology to commit financial crimes as he cited the use of deepfake videos and synthetic identities to bypass security systems and authorize fraudulent transactions.
While referencing data from Chain-analysis, Olukoyede stated that cryptocurrencies and virtual assets had become major conduits for illicit financial flows.
He says the EFCC investigations uncovered a cryptocurrency investment fraud syndicate and a wide-scale romance scam involving foreign nationals operating within Nigeria and called for urgent reforms and pro-active enforcement in the sector. He urged stakeholders to adopt a four-pronged strategy , including strengthening core compliance processes, in line with the 2023 CBN Customer Due Diligence Regulation; investing in RegTech to automate compliance and risk scoring; deepening collaboration with law enforcement and regulatory agencies and advocating for robust legislation governing virtual assets and mandatory Know Your Customers, KYC, for crypto platforms.
The EFCC boss charged financial institutions to maintain strict adherence to anti-money laundering, AML protocols and remain vigilant in the face of new and evolving threats.
The conference brought together top financial sector players to discuss the risks and opportunities presented by emerging technologies.
Editor : Ena Agbanoma
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