Access, UBA, Zenith, Opay, Others Expose 42,082 Transactions by Suspected Yahoo Boys
- Nigerian banks and fintechs submitted 42,082 Suspicious Transaction Reports to the NFIU in 2025, according to the agency's annual report
- Deposit Money Banks led all sectors, filing about 92% of the suspicious transaction reports recorded during the year
- The 2025 figures showed a sharp drop from 2024, when financial institutions filed over 82,000 suspicious transaction reports
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Pascal Oparada is a journalist with Legit.ng, covering technology, energy, stocks, investment, and the economy for over a decade.
Banks, fintech operators and other reporting entities submitted 42,082 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in 2025, highlighting intensified monitoring of potentially illicit financial activities across Nigeria.
The figures were contained in the NFIU’s 2025 Annual Report, which showed that the agency also received 41.72 million Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) and 10,513 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) during the year.
Deposit Money Banks dominated suspicious transaction reporting, accounting for 38,715 STRs, or about 92 per cent of the total. Other Financial Institutions filed 2,185 reports, while Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions submitted 1,029.
Source: UGC
Capital market operators and insurance companies accounted for 104 reports, while Virtual Asset Service Providers, including cryptocurrency-related businesses, filed 49.
The figures reflect reports of transactions considered suspicious by regulated entities. They do not, by themselves, establish that the transactions were linked to internet fraudsters or other criminal activity.
Suspicious reports rose through the year
Bank reporting increased steadily across the four quarters, rising from 9,134 STRs in the first quarter to 9,658 in the second, 9,891 in the third and 10,032 in the fourth, according to a report by Punch.
The trend came as regulators intensified anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance across the financial system.
However, suspicious reporting declined sharply compared with 2024. STRs fell from 82,143 to 42,082, representing a 48.8 per cent drop, while SARs declined by about 55 per cent from 23,364 to 10,513.
More than 41 million transaction reports filed
Despite the fall in suspicious reports, threshold-based transaction reporting surged.
Financial institutions filed 41.72 million CTRs in 2025, up 61.6 per cent from 25.82 million recorded in 2024.
Banks accounted for 37.21 million CTRs, with quarterly submissions rising from 7.04 million in the first quarter to 11.09 million in the fourth quarter.
The NFIU said the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act requires financial institutions to report transactions above N5 million for individuals and N10 million for legal persons within seven days, Vanguard reported.
It also requires reports on incoming and outgoing transfers exceeding $10,000 within 24 hours.
Crypto sector reporting expands
Virtual Asset Service Providers recorded increased reporting activity during the second half of 2025.
The sector filed no STRs in the first two quarters but submitted 17 in the third quarter and 32 in the fourth. It also filed 313 CTRs during the year, with reporting beginning in the third quarter.
The NFIU said it continued working with regulators including the Central Bank of Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Insurance Commission and Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering to strengthen compliance.
Source: Getty Images
The agency also disclosed 28.13 million reports involving Politically Exposed Persons, up 31.1 per cent from 2024.
The growing volume of financial disclosures comes amid efforts to modernise Nigeria’s anti-money laundering system, including moves toward automated monitoring, artificial intelligence, behavioural analysis and real-time detection of unusual transactions.
The regulatory push is designed to give authorities greater visibility over financial flows while enabling banks and other reporting entities to identify and report potentially suspicious activity more quickly.
CBN exposes over 13,000 fraud-linked BVNs
Legit.ng earlier reported that Nigeria's banking sector has intensified its fight against financial fraud, with the number of Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) linked to fraudulent activities surging to 13,117 in 2025.
The latest figures, released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its 2025 Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, show that commercial banks, including Access Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and other financial institutions, significantly expanded fraud monitoring during the year.
Source: Legit.ng
