Nigeria restates commitment to global fight against terrorism, backs ‘no money for terror’

The Federal Government of Nigeria has affirmed its commitment to the global fight against the financing of terrorism.

Kemi Adeosun, the country’s minister of finance, gave this pledge at an International conference against the financing of terrorism in Paris, France.

The conference, which had as theme “No money for terror”, was hosted by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and was attended by Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); Jim Kim, president of the World Bank Group; Steven Mnuchin, US treasury secretary, as well as Phillip Hammond, the UK Chancellor,.

Adeosun, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the conference, said the country was reinvigorating efforts to tackle the financing of terrorism.

“The Nigerian Government is very committed to the fight against terrorism and cutting off funding for terrorists’ activities,” she said in her address, adding that government, in addition to monitoring of the formal channels of finance via the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and other bodies, is also monitoring ‘non-formal cash-based structures’, which can often be used for illicit purposes.

Adeosun emphasised the need to address the root cause of terrorism and not the symptoms.

She disclosed that the men and officers of the Nigeria Customs Service were working to effectively track physical cash movements and transactions at the various borders, including Niger, Benin Republic and Cameroon.