President Bola Tinubu has commended the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for securing 10,872 convictions and recovering assets worth N1.23 trillion in 34 months.
Represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettim, the president spoke in Abuja on Tuesday at the opening of the eighth EFCC/National Judicial Institute (NJI) workshop for judges and justices.
Tinubu said the EFCC had made significant progress in combating financial crimes, recovering illicit assets and strengthening Nigeria’s international financial standing.
The three-day workshop, themed “Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Financial Crimes in a Digital Age”, will end on Thursday, October 15.
Tinubu praised EFCC’s efforts to combat cryptocurrency fraud and recover virtual assets, saying the agency had demonstrated its determination to keep pace with evolving criminal methods.
“The EFCC’s recent momentum in tackling cryptocurrency fraud and its commendable strides in recovering virtual assets is highly reassuring,” he said.
The president also cited the prosecution and subsequent deportation of 192 foreign nationals arrested for cyberterrorism and cryptocurrency fraud as evidence of the commission’s efforts to tackle technology-driven crimes.
In September, EFCC said it received 49,673 petitions and investigated 39,615 cases between October 1, 2023, and July 31, 2026.
The investigations resulted in 14,476 court filings and 10,872 convictions, representing a 75.1 percent conviction-to-filing ratio.
The commission also said it recovered N1.233 trillion, $684.48 million, £373,905.78 and €9.34 million during the period under review.
He said the increasing sophistication of financial crimes, fuelled by blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI), had made continuous training necessary for investigators, prosecutors and judicial officers.
Tinubu said the government would continue to support judicial capacity development, noting that an independent and reform-minded judiciary was essential to combatting corruption.
He urged the EFCC and the judiciary to strengthen prosecutorial discipline and address procedural loopholes that allow defendants to frustrate trials.
The president expressed concern that major anti-corruption cases could be lost on procedural technicalities, potentially undermining public confidence in the justice system.
He added that the fight against corruption should not be treated as the responsibility of the executive alone but as a collective duty of all arms of government.
Tinubu also said asset recoveries had provided critical fiscal support for social intervention programmes, including the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP).
