The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, has restated its commitment to strengthening its partnership with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in the fight against corruption, cybercrime, illicit financial flows and all other organized crimes.
The commitment was made in Abuja on Tuesday, when a delegation of the UNODC, led by its Country Representative, Mr Check Toure, paid a courtesy visit to EFCC’s Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede at the corporate headquarters of the Commission.
Toure emphasized UNODC’s new strategic approach to partnership with Nigeria, noting that the country has been a key player in implementing global anti-corruption frameworks such as the United Nations Convention against Corruption, UNCAC, and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, UNTOC.
“For us in UNODC, we have developed a new approach to partnership. Nigeria has been a leader, not only in ratifying key conventions but also in contributing to their documentation.
“We worked closely with the EFCC in 2014 and 2020, particularly in anti-money laundering initiatives. Now, we are moving from ad-hoc interventions to a jointly developed country programme, which has been approved by the UN as our five-year blueprint for Nigeria,” he said.
Toure highlighted the recent global funding challenges, including a projected cut in U.S. foreign aid from October 2025, stressing the need for more sustainable and regionally driven solutions.
“We must look at how we can support Nigeria in addressing illicit financial flows, which costs the continent billions of dollars annually.
“Nigeria is at the forefront of this fight, and its leadership should resonate at the sub-regional level,” he said.
Experts have said tackling corruption and IFFs have become a matter of survival for Nigeria’s and Africa’s development and must be treated with urgency.
There is a broad consensus that the funds being illegally channeled out of Nigeria and Africa, could be channeled towards the continent’s development if successfully retained.
Former President of South Africa and the Chairman of the African Union High Level Panel on IFFs, Thabo Mbeki, had stated that the African Continent suffered an annual loss of over $50bn as at 2015 through IFFs, which has over the years grown to $80bn yearly.
Mbeki had in 2022 made a spirited call for a United Nations Tax Convention to halt illicit financial flows from Africa and multinational and corporate tax abuse.
He had also called for the establishment of a globally inclusive intergovernmental tax body to strengthen global efforts against IFFs.
The Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, had last week described IFFs as the hidden drain pipes of Nigeria’s national wealth.
She said, “They undermine revenue generation, erode tax bases, fuel corruption, and reduce the resources available for critical investments in health, education, infrastructure, and social protection.
“Illicit financial flows are not inevitable. They thrive where systems are weak and coordination is absent—but they can be stopped when political will meets institutional resolve.”
