The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has announced the official exit of Nigeria from the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, commonly known as the grey list.
Nigeria was removed from the list by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at its October 2025 Plenary in Paris, France.
Accordign to the NFIU the “milestone” marks a historic moment in Nigeria’s fight against serious financial crimes.
“The delisting of Nigeria underscores the country’s commitment to global standards in combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.
“Nigeria was placed on the FATF grey list in February 2023, following the identification of strategic deficiencies in its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework,” the agency said in a statement on Friday.
It explained that Nigeria had worked over the past two years resolutely to address the concerns through a 19-point action plan developed in collaboration with the FATF and its regional counterpart, the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).
“Through a strategic programme of legislative reforms, institutional strengthening, and enhanced inter-agency coordination, Nigeria has demonstrated sustained commitment to financial transparency and integrity.
“Key milestones include enactment and enforcement of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022; operationalisation of the Beneficial Ownership Register, improving corporate transparency and accountability; and enhanced capacity of the intelligence, law enforcement and security agencies in detecting, analysing, and prosecuting complex financial crimes,” the NFIU stated..
Others are the implementation of stronger supervisory and preventive measures by the public and private sector authorities to prevent the abuses of Nigeria’s financial system to facilitate criminal activity, increased international cooperation, and cross-border intelligence exchange with regional and global partners, and improved supervision of Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs).