NCTC, UNODC Inaugurate Working Group to Counter Criminal and Terrorist Finance in Nigeria’s Mineral Sector

Oru Leonard 

The National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and with the support of the Government of Canada, has established a Technical Working Group (TWG) on Mineral Crime and Terrorism Financing.

Nigeria’s mineral sector, particularly artisanal and small-scale gold mining, has increasingly been exploited by criminal and terrorist networks. These illicit activities deprive the government of vital tax and royalty revenues, weaken state capacity to deliver essential services, and fuel instability nationwide. By exploiting regulatory gaps and opaque value chains, criminal groups disguise illicit proceeds, perpetuating conflict and organized crime.

The TWG, comprising representatives of law enforcement, intelligence and other security agencies, including those of other strategic MDAs and the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative (PAGMI), will collaborate to strengthen the nation’s criminal justice capacity to address illicit financial flows tied to terrorism financing and money laundering in the mining sector by coordinating individual agency responses, supporting national efforts, and guiding policy reforms. It will also promote community resilience in artisanal mining regions while integrating gender equality and human rights into government interventions.

In his keynote speech at the inaugural meeting of the working group, the NCTC National Coordinator, Major General Adamu Garba Laka, who was represented by the Centre’s Director of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, Ambassador Mairo Musa Abbas underscored the Federal Government of Nigeria’s commitment to cutting off terrorist financing at its source, including in the Mineral sector.

General Laka in the speech, says, “Nigeria’s mineral resources remain some of the most valuable national assets we possess. Yet in recent years, the growing exploitation of these resources by criminal syndicates and violent extremist elements has become a significant threat. This is not merely a theoretical risk; it is a lived reality in several regions of our country, where illegal mining intersects with banditry, insurgency, arms trafficking and cross-border smuggling. In past years, the NCTC has recorded remarkable progress in strengthening Nigeria’s counter-terrorism financing architecture. Today’s initiative builds on this momentum. Protecting our mineral resources from criminal capture is not only a security imperative, it is a development imperative, an economic imperative and, ultimately, a sovereign duty.”

While encouraging members of the TWG to engage with a shared sense of national responsibility, noting our mineral resources as strategic national assets, “Protecting them from criminal capture is not only a security imperative, it is a development imperative, an economic imperative and ultimately, a sovereign duty.”

Mr. Cheikh Toure, UNODC Country Representative for Nigeria, in his remarks conveyed by Mr. Tom Parker, Head of the UNODC Counter Terrorism Unit, praised the leadership of the NCTC, while emphasizing that “Illegal mining, and the illicit financial flows generated by this activity, undermine Nigeria’s stability and development. The creation of this interagency Working Group by the NCTC is an important step in reversing this trend. UNODC is committed to strengthening Nigeria’s capacity to detect, investigate, and prosecute financial crimes linked to terrorism and organized crime. Collaboration is fundamental to defeating criminal and terrorist threats, and helps foster shared learning and policy innovation.”

Funded by the Government of Canada, UNODC is working closely with the NCTC together with agencies like Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, National Financial Intelligence Unit, the Mining Marshals Corps and the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development to build Nigeria’s capacity towards combating illicit financial flows linked to Nigeria’s mineral sector by deepening analysis of relationship between mineral-related crimes and the financing of terrorism, strengthening supervision in the financial sector by equipping both private and government actors to detect suspicious transactions, and supporting the effective investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of money laundering and terrorism financing cases at the state and federal levels.

Cover Photo Caption: Members of the newly inaugurated Technical Working Group (TWG) on Mineral Crime and Terrorism Financing.

(UNODC Media)