Nigeria’s Committee hails US sanctions of BDCs financing terrorism

By Anan Geolengs

Nigeria Sanctions Committee has hailed the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over its decision to designate alleged terrorist financier, Muktar Muhammad Adamu, alongside Nine to Nine BDC Limited and Generation Currency BDC Limited, for sanctions over their alleged links to terrorist activities.

The Committee in a statement issued on Wednesday, said the US action followed Nigeria’s earlier designation of Adamu and the two companies on the Nigeria Sanctions List, which was approved and published on June 18, 2026.

According to the Committee, the sanctions were the outcome of extensive intelligence gathering, financial investigations, and inter-agency assessments that established reasonable grounds to believe that the affected individuals and entities facilitated, financed, supported, or otherwise contributed to the activities of the terrorist group Islamic State West Africa Province and associated networks.

The Committee disclosed that six individuals and three companies were added to the Nigeria Sanctions List as part of the June 18 update.

The individuals are Ibrahim Yakubu Ogirima, Muktar Muhammad Adamu, Adamu Chiroma, Ibrahim Abubakar, Abdullahi Umar Usman, and Babangida Muhammed Adamu Hammajam.
The sanctioned entities include Abbal Bako & Sons Bureau De Change Limited, Generation Currency BDC Limited, and Nine to Nine BDC Limited.

The Federal Government reiterated its directive to financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions to maintain strict compliance with sanctions obligations.

These include implementing asset-freezing measures, filing Suspicious Transaction Reports, and reporting any relevant matches to the appropriate authorities.

The Nigeria Sanctions Committee also commended the collaborative efforts of key government agencies, including the Federal Ministry of Justice, Office of the National Security Adviser, Central Bank of Nigeria, Department of State Services, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, for their role in ensuring that terrorist groups are denied access to financial resources.

The Committee reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to combating terrorism financing, stressing that terrorists and their sponsors would find no safe haven within the country’s financial system.

It added that the government would continue to collaborate with domestic stakeholders and international partners to strengthen financial integrity, enhance national security, and support global efforts aimed at disrupting terrorist financing networks.

Further information on the sanctions regime and the updated sanctions list is available on the official Nigeria Sanctions Committee website at https://nigsac.gov.ng/.