EFCC Recovers N1.23trn, $684m in 33 Months

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede, said the anti-graft agency recovered N1.233 trillion between October 2023 and June 2026 as part of its sustained campaign against economic and financial crimes.

Mr Olukoyede also disclosed that the organisation recovered $684.48 million, £373,905.78, and €9.34 million, in addition to funds recovered in other currencies, during the period.

The EFCC boss disclosed this at the commission’s headquarters, Jabi, Abuja, while presenting his three-year stewardship report to journalists on Monday.

Mr Olukoyede, who assumed office in October 2023, said the recoveries were part of a broader enforcement, prosecution, asset recovery, institutional reform, and international collaboration effort undertaken under his leadership.

According to him, about N397.26 billion, representing 33 per cent of the Naira recoveries, constituted direct recoveries for the federal government, while N836.34 billion, or 67 per cent, represented indirect recoveries made on behalf of ministries, departments, and agencies, state revenue services, companies, individuals, and foreign victims.

“Two out of every three naira recovered were on behalf of beneficiaries other than the federal government,” he clarified.

The EFCC chairman said the commission had also released N661.32 billion and $492.37 million to beneficiaries during the period, stressing that recovery was meaningful only when recovered assets were returned to the public interest and rightful beneficiaries.

He further explained that the naira releases included N325.35 billion paid directly to individuals and corporate bodies, while N335.97 billion was released to various MDAs, the Nigerian Revenue Service, state internal revenue services, and other public institutions, companies, and individuals.

“Federal and state tax recoveries amounted to approximately N288.1 billion, comprising N173.2 billion in federal tax recoveries and N114.9 billion attributed to states’ internal revenue services.

“Another N257.2 billion in recoveries was recorded for federal ministries, departments and agencies,” he stated.

The EFCC helmsman said the anti-graft war had also produced social and economic benefits, citing the allocation of N50 billion each from recovered proceeds to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation in 2024, with further N50 billion allocations to each institution approved in 2026.

For example, he said, a recovered property, NOK University, had been converted into the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, Kaduna State, where 1,909 students matriculated in December 2025.

On enforcement, Mr Olukoyede said the commission received 49,673 petitions, investigated 39,615 cases, filed 14,476 cases in court, and secured 10,872 convictions between October 2023 and July 2026.

He said the figures represented a conviction-to-filing ratio of 75.1 per cent, adding that 1,370 convictions were secured from 1,889 filings in the first half of 2026 alone.

According to him, data from 2024 to 2026 year-to-date showed 46,288 offences across nine major financial crime typologies, with advance fee fraud and cybercrime accounting for nearly two-thirds of recorded offences.

He noted that recorded offences increased by 24.1 per cent between 2024 and 2025, with notable rises in procurement fraud, bank fraud, cybercrime, and economic governance offences.

Mr Olukoyede said the commission had continued to prosecute high-profile cases without regard to the status of suspects, noting that its portfolio covered former governors, ministers, public office holders, heads of agencies, financial-sector operators, and corporate officials.

He listed recent convictions involving former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, former NEXIM Bank managing director, Robert Orya, and Chukwunyere Nwabuoku.

He said the EFCC’s specialised enforcement portfolio covering money laundering, unlicensed bureaux de change, illegal mining, virtual assets, and terrorist financing recorded 920 cases, with 212 convictions.

On asset forfeiture, the EFCC chairman said 10,053 tangible assets were forfeited under interim and final court orders between October 2023 and July 2026.

The assets included 8,198 electronic items, 1,177 real-estate assets, 370 automobiles, and 251 plots of land, as well as schools, factories, hotels, shops, oil rigs, barges, machinery, and aircraft.

He added that 102 tonnes of solid minerals were also forfeited, while proceeds from the disposal of assets under final forfeiture orders amounted to approximately N12.07 billion and were paid to the Federal Government.

Mr Olukoyede said the commission’s enforcement activities had contributed to Nigeria’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey List in October 2025.

He disclosed that the EFCC recorded 234 bureaux de change cases and 73 convictions within the last three years, saying the enforcement was aimed at supporting a more formal and transparent foreign-exchange market.

On institutional reforms, he said the commission introduced new guidelines on arrest and bail, reviewed sting operations, and established the Department of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, Security Department, Immigration and Visa Section, and Cybercrime Rapid Response Centre.

He said new directorates had been commissioned in Enugu and Ilorin, while others were established in Ekiti, Anambra, and Katsina states to improve citizens’ access to the Commission.

Olukoyede also disclosed that almost 60 per cent of the EFCC’s processes and operations had been digitalised, alongside investments in a new academy, a 24/7 Cybercrime Rapid Response Centre, and EFCC Radio.

He said the commission would, in the coming years, focus on prevention, faster restitution, improved investigative technology, and greater professionalism in its engagement with citizens.

“We are not merely counting arrests or announcing recoveries. Our responsibility is to convert information and intelligence into prevention, petitions into investigations, investigations into prosecutions, prosecutions into convictions, recoveries into restitution, and enforcement into measurable national value,” he noted.