The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), in Riga, Latvia, scored the highest points and awarded the 2022 Best Egmont Case Award (BECA) nomination among the 164-member countries of the Egmont Group.
A statement signed by the NFIU Chief Media Analyst, Ahmed Dikko, said the award was jointly sponsored by the World Bank and the United Nations (UN), adding that the award was received on Thursday during the plenary of the global financial intelligence units group.
According to the statement on the 2022 Best Egmont Case Award (BECA):
“The NFIU also received the Egmont Group Certificate of Appreciation for offering its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) team to work and redevelop its global intelligence exchange software, which the plenary also approved to replace the earlier version developed by the U.S.”
A French National and Executive Secretary of the group, Jerome Beaumont, described the NFIU as “a team with highly knowledgeable and very efficient personnel.”
This is not the first time the NFIU is getting these international awards this year, at the end of May 2022 in Senegal, the Unit won three different awards from ECOWAS.
The Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), gave the NFIU a star award for mentorship, as well as two other awards for “valuable contribution to the region” and the third one in collaboration achievement.
Celebrating the feat of winning five international awards in West Africa and the world within a period of three months, the Director/Chief Executive Editor of the NFIU, Mr. Modibbo Tukur said:
“We tried to assemble the best team from day one. We moulded each staff into becoming a technician of himself. We niched ourselves into the global intelligence community. Once you come to us, we always try to give you exactly what you are looking for.
Our major challenge is that the traditional organisations and platforms in the country are not cooperating well when it comes to operational duties. There is no interagency collaboration and synergy and that’s a complete disaster in areas of national security. I hope it would be overcome one day. If you remember the US government concluded its operation in silos among security agencies which eventually allowed September 11 to happen.”
