By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ranked terrorism financing supervision among its top regulatory priorities, warning financial institutions to comply strictly with existing legal and sanctions obligations or face further supervisory action.
The Apex Bank disclosed this in a press release issued on Tuesday, 8 September, 2026, in Abuja and signed by its Acting Director, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations Department, Hakama Sidi-Ali.
The statement said the elevated supervisory posture forms part of the CBN’s continuing effort to shield Nigeria’s financial system from exploitation by illicit actors, a development regulatory analysts say tightens the compliance net around banks and other financial operators nationwide.
The CBN said the new supervisory priority covers terrorism financing risk management, transaction monitoring, targeted financial sanctions implementation and suspicious transaction reporting linked to terrorism financing.
It said it would sustain a risk-based supervisory approach, combining on-site and off-site engagement with regulated entities to enforce effective Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Financing of Terrorism and Counter-Proliferation Financing (AML/CFT/CPF) controls across the financial sector, in line with existing legal and regulatory obligations binding industry operators.
Sidi-Ali said the heightened focus reinforces Nigeria’s ongoing domestic and international cooperation on counter-terrorism financing, counter-proliferation financing and financial integrity, and reaffirms the protection of the financial system as a shared regulatory and national obligation.
The Apex Bank disclosed that further supervisory engagement would be undertaken as appropriate, a signal that more compliance checks, sanctions enforcement and possible regulatory action against defaulting institutions may follow in the coming weeks as the CBN consolidates its oversight of the sector.
