Banks, fintech operators and other reporting entities submitted 42,082 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in 2025, according to the agency’s 2025 Annual Report.
The disclosures were made amid tighter regulatory scrutiny and continuing efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s anti-money laundering (AML), counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing frameworks. The NFIU also received more than 41.7 million Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) and 10,513 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) during the year.
NFIU receives millions of reports
“During the review period, the NFIU received a total of 41,716,214 CTRs, 42,082 STRs, and 10,513 SARs,” the report stated.
The three categories serve different compliance purposes. Currency Transaction Reports generally relate to transactions above statutory reporting thresholds, while Suspicious Transaction Reports concern transactions that financial institutions believe may be connected to money laundering, terrorism financing, fraud or other unlawful activity.
Suspicious Activity Reports may cover broader patterns of conduct that raise concerns, including activity involving customers, accounts or networks, even where a specific transaction has not been conclusively identified as suspicious.
The NFIU said it receives threshold-based disclosures, suspicious transaction and activity reports, as well as regulatory submissions relating to AML, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing compliance.
The agency works with regulators and supervisory bodies including the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Insurance Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering to ensure that reporting entities comply with relevant laws and regulations.
Deposit money banks dominate filings
Deposit Money Banks remained the largest source of suspicious transaction reports in 2025, submitting 38,715 filings. This represented approximately 92 per cent of the 42,082 STRs received by the NFIU.
Other Financial Institutions filed 2,185 STRs, while Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions submitted 1,029 reports. Capital market operators and insurance companies filed 104 reports.
Virtual Asset Service Providers, including cryptocurrency-related businesses, submitted 49 suspicious transaction reports during the year.
The distribution indicates that traditional banks continued to play the leading role in Nigeria’s suspicious transaction reporting system. It also highlights the comparatively low number of reports filed by some newer financial and digital-asset sectors, despite the growing use of fintech and cryptocurrency services.
Banks also accounted for the largest share of Suspicious Activity Reports, filing 8,313 of the 10,513 SARs received by the NFIU.
Other Financial Institutions submitted 1,816 SARs, while capital market and insurance companies filed 295. The NFIU recorded no SAR filings from the DNFBP sector.
Transaction monitoring increased
Financial institutions submitted 41,716,214 Currency Transaction Reports in 2025. Deposit Money Banks accounted for 37,214,139 of those filings, equivalent to about 89.2 per cent of the total.
Other Financial Institutions submitted 4,212,466 CTRs, while capital market and insurance companies filed 289,296. Virtual Asset Service Providers submitted 313 reports.
Under Section 11 of Nigeria’s Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, financial institutions must report transactions above ₦5 million for individuals and ₦10 million for legal persons within seven days.
The NFIU also said Section 3(1) of the legislation requires financial institutions to report incoming and outgoing transfers above $10,000 within 24 hours.
The volume of bank-generated CTRs increased in every quarter. Deposit Money Banks filed 7,040,493 reports in the first quarter, 8,197,292 in the second quarter, 10,885,247 in the third quarter and 11,091,107 in the fourth quarter.
Bank STR filings also rose steadily, from 9,134 in the first quarter to 9,658 in the second, 9,891 in the third and 10,032 in the final quarter.
Fintech and crypto reporting trends
Other Financial Institutions submitted 451 STRs in the first quarter and 432 in the second quarter. Their filings increased to 719 in the third quarter before declining to 583 in the fourth quarter.
SARs from the sector rose from 453 in the first quarter to 569 in the third quarter, before falling to 399 in the final quarter.
The report also showed increased reporting activity among Virtual Asset Service Providers. No STRs were recorded from the sector during the first half of 2025, but VASPs filed 17 reports in the third quarter and 32 in the fourth quarter.
VASPs submitted 28 SARs in the first quarter, 12 in the second, 24 in the third and 25 in the fourth. Their CTR filings also began appearing in the second half of the year, with 103 reports in the third quarter and 210 in the fourth.
The figures suggest that regulatory reporting by digital-asset businesses was beginning to expand, although the sector’s overall contribution remained small compared with that of banks.
Politically exposed person disclosures
Reporting entities submitted 28,133,909 Politically Exposed Persons reports in 2025.
Deposit Money Banks accounted for most of the disclosures, filing 7,263,557 reports in the first quarter, 5,658,079 in the second, 6,235,585 in the third and 8,225,572 in the fourth.
Other Financial Institutions recorded a substantial increase, from just 12 PEP reports in the first quarter to 617,286 in the fourth quarter. Capital market and insurance institutions submitted 28,561 reports, while no PEP filings were recorded from VASPs.
PEP reporting is an important component of AML controls because politically exposed persons may present higher corruption and bribery risks. Financial institutions are generally expected to apply enhanced due diligence, establish the source of wealth and funds, and maintain closer monitoring of relevant accounts and transactions.
DNFBP examinations and registrations
The NFIU said its Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions Division conducted joint on-site examinations of 29 reporting entities in the Federal Capital Territory.
The entities operated in sectors including real estate, casinos, dealers in precious metals and stones, and consultancy services.
The exercise led to 20 new registrations on the RapidAML portal and subscriptions to the Nigerian Integrated Government Security and Accreditation platform, according to the report. It also resulted in the filing of 1,029 suspicious transaction reports.
The activity reflects continuing efforts to bring non-bank businesses within Nigeria’s broader financial intelligence and AML reporting system.
STRs fall from 2024 level
Despite the 42,082 reports filed in 2025, the figure represented a significant decline from the previous year.
STRs fell by 40,061, from 82,143 in 2024 to 42,082 in 2025, a decrease of approximately 48.8 per cent. SARs declined by 12,851, from 23,364 to 10,513, representing a reduction of about 55 per cent.
By contrast, CTRs increased by 15,896,495, rising from 25,819,719 in 2024 to 41,716,214 in 2025. This amounted to year-on-year growth of approximately 61.6 per cent.
PEP reports also increased by 6,667,621, from 21,466,288 in 2024 to 28,133,909 in 2025, representing growth of about 31.1 per cent.
The contrasting figures point to a shift in reporting patterns. Financial institutions reported substantially more threshold-based transactions and PEP-related disclosures, while the number of suspicious transaction and activity reports fell sharply.
The decline could reflect changes in compliance practices, reporting quality, supervisory expectations or the way financial institutions classify alerts. However, the annual report figures alone do not establish the precise reason for the reduction.
CBN pushes automated AML systems
The reporting trends emerged as the Central Bank of Nigeria moved to modernise AML controls across the financial system.
In a circular dated May 20, 2025, the CBN proposed standards designed to respond to the digitalisation of Nigeria’s financial system and the growing sophistication of financial transactions.
The proposed framework calls for intelligent AML systems capable of real-time transaction monitoring and anomaly detection. It also envisages the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for behavioural pattern recognition, risk scoring and adaptive monitoring.
The systems are expected to identify potential risks involving large cash deposits, cross-border transactions and cryptocurrency dealings. They must also integrate with core banking applications, customer onboarding platforms and internal transaction-processing systems.
Automated reporting to the NFIU is another key component. AML platforms are expected to generate STRs, CTRs and Foreign Currency Transaction Reports where required, while providing dashboards for internal compliance teams and external supervisory oversight.
For Nigeria’s banks, fintechs, VASPs and other reporting entities, the 2025 figures underline the importance of accurate, timely and risk-based reporting as regulators intensify efforts to detect illicit financial flows.