The disclosure was contained in the agency’s 2026 Annual Report released on Monday.
The NFIU said terrorist financiers were also opening bank accounts in women’s names while using phone numbers that were not registered to the account holders or actual beneficiaries for mobile banking and account alerts.
According to the report, terrorist groups are increasingly relying on crowdfunding schemes operated by foreign-based facilitators who use social media to solicit donations under the guise of humanitarian relief or educational support.
The funds are subsequently moved through multiple layers before reaching terrorist operatives in Nigeria.
The agency said hundreds of sympathisers were encouraged to contribute between $50 and $500 through PayPal pages and conventional bank accounts. The relatively small contributions were allegedly designed to avoid triggering automated anti-money laundering alerts.
The NFIU said foreign-based facilitators promoted the campaigns on social media and used encrypted messaging applications to distribute links to payment platforms and bank accounts.
The funds were then pooled in master accounts allegedly controlled by senior members of the groups residing legally abroad.
The agency said terrorists were now exploiting SIM cards belonging to dead people to facilitate the collection of funds.
It explained that once funds accumulated in an account reached a certain threshold, the account could be used as a hub for transferring the money.
The funds were subsequently fragmented into dozens of smaller payments and transferred through international money transfer operators and remittance applications to networks of money mules in Nigeria.
The NFIU said the development showed how terrorist financiers were adopting increasingly sophisticated methods to conceal the source and movement of illicit funds and evade financial monitoring systems.
The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit is responsible for collecting and analysing financial disclosures from reporting organisations and providing intelligence to relevant agencies involved in combating money laundering, terrorism financing and other financial crimes.
