Bright Eseosa Enorenseeghe

Economic and financial crimes (EFCs) are global problems which affects the economy of countries and the society at large. This situation is exacerbated in countries such as Nigeria with low Corruption Perception Index which has failed to tackle corruption effectively; especially in the public sector. Regardless, combating EFCs in Nigeria has led to the establishment of several Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs) and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs). To facilitate the successes of the ACAs and LEAs in the fight against EFCs through financial intelligence a financial intelligence unit (FIU) was established, as recommended globally, to provide the requisite financial intelligence to the relevant ACAs and LEAs. The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has been further empowered with the fairly recent enactment of the NFIU Act 2018. In order to aptly assess the relevance of this development in the fight against EFCs in Nigeria, this paper, using content analyses approach, reviews the role and relevance of the NFIU in combating EFCs in Nigeria under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act (EFCC Act) and under the extant NFIU Act with the antedant challenges faced by this Unit.