Financial Investigations in Illegal Wildlife Trade Cases: Lessons from Nigeria

In recent years, Nigeria has been recognised as the primary transit hub for the trafficking of large-scale flows of illegal wildlife trade (IWT) products from Africa to Asia. In line with recommendations in previous RUSI research on combatting the involvement of organised crime groups (OCGs) and associated illicit financial flows in IWT, Nigeria has taken positive steps in tackling these issues. They include recognition of IWT as a money-laundering risk, prioritisation of financial intelligence resources for parallel investigation of IWT, and the strengthening of national policy frameworks to combat the financial enablers of wildlife crime.

Despite such progress, these strategies have yet to produce successful enforcement outcomes, with no examples of IWT-related money-laundering prosecutions being sanctioned to date. The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has therefore identified the need for capacity building in financial investigation and prosecution of IWT cases. Against this backdrop, and in collaboration with the NFIU and key civil society partners, in September 2023, RUSI delivered a training workshop in Abuja on the financial investigation of IWT for Nigerian public sector agencies.

The aim of the workshop was to enhance the institutional capabilities of the Nigerian authorities to combat IWT-related financial flows and OCGs, while identifying existing challenges and opportunities for effective cooperation and collaboration in financial investigations and prosecutions of IWT. The workshop was followed by four bilateral meetings with members of the regulated financial sector to further explore the themes raised in the workshop, including the role of the private sector regarding the detection and investigation of IWT-related illicit financial flows. This report summarises the lessons learned from these activities.