The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it recovered N1.233 trillion and $684.48 million between October 2023 and July 2026, while securing 10,872 convictions as it intensified its enforcement campaign under Ola Olukoyede, executive chairman of the anti-graft agency.
It further disclosed that recoveries are funding government, restitution, education loans and consumer credit as enforcement expands into cybercrime, money laundering and virtual assets
The Commission said the recoveries, spread across 16 currencies, were part of a strategy to convert the proceeds of anti-corruption enforcement into fiscal resources, restitution for victims, social investment and other forms of economic value.
Olukoyede disclosed the figures at a media briefing in Abuja on his 34-month stewardship, saying the period had been by sustained investigations, prosecution, asset recovery, institutional reforms and increased collaboration with domestic and international law-enforcement partners.
According to the EFCC, it received 49,673 petitions between October 2023 and July 2026, investigated 39,615 cases and filed 14,476 cases before various courts.
From the cases filed, the Commission secured 10,872 convictions, underlining what Olukoyede described as a prosecutorial approach increasingly focused on evidence and courtroom outcomes.
In the first half of 2026 alone, the EFCC said it secured 1,370 convictions from 1,889 cases filed in court.
The agency’s enforcement statistics point to the scale of financial and economic crimes confronting Nigeria, with its analysis of petitions and cases between 2024 and 2026 showing 46,288 offences across nine major crime typologies.
Advance fee fraud and cybercrime accounted for nearly two-thirds of the offences recorded during the period, while total recorded offences increased by 24.1 percent between 2024 and 2025.
The Commission said procurement fraud, bank fraud, cybercrime and economic-governance offences recorded some of the most notable increases.
The figures, according to Olukoyede, demonstrate that the anti-graft battle extends beyond high-profile corruption cases involving politically exposed persons.
“Every day, we are protecting citizens, businesses and institutions from fraud, cyber-enabled crime and other forms of economic exploitation,” he said.
The EFCC said that between October 1, 2023 and June 30, 2026, it recovered N1.233 trillion, alongside $684.48 million, £373,905.78 and €9.34 million, in addition to funds recovered in other currencies.
Of the N1.233 trillion recovered, approximately N397.26 billion, representing about 33 percent, was classified as direct recovery for the Federal Government.
The larger share, about N836.35 billion or 67 percent, was recovered on behalf of ministries, departments and agencies, state revenue authorities, companies, individuals and foreign victims.
The breakdown means that roughly two out of every three naira recovered by the Commission during the period was for beneficiaries other than the Federal Government.
The EFCC said the distinction was important in understanding the broader economic impact of asset recovery, as the Commission sought to ensure that proceeds of crime were returned to their rightful owners or deployed for public benefit.
“Recovery is only truly meaningful when value is returned to the public interest and to rightful beneficiaries,” Olukoyede said.
According to the Commission, N661.32 billion and $492.37 million of the recovered funds had been released to beneficiaries.
The naira releases included approximately N325.35 billion paid directly to individuals and corporate bodies.
Another N335.97 billion was released to various ministries, departments and agencies, Nigerian revenue authorities and states’ internal revenue services, as well as other public institutions, companies and individuals.
Olukoyede said the Commission’s priority going forward would be to make the restitution process faster, more transparent and more efficient.
The EFCC also said its enforcement activities had also produced significant fiscal value for federal and subnational governments.
The Commission reported federal and state tax recoveries of approximately N288.1 billion during the period.
This included about N173.2 billion in federal tax recoveries and N114.9 billion attributed to state internal revenue services.
The EFCC stressed that the funds represented revenue recovered through the enforcement of existing obligations rather than the imposition of new taxes.
It also recorded approximately N257.2 billion in naira recoveries for federal ministries, departments and agencies.
Olukoyede said enforcement could help government institutions recover funds and revenues that would otherwise remain trapped in fraud, non-compliance and other forms of financial misconduct.
The Commission also pointed to the use of recovered proceeds of crime to support social and economic programmes.
In August 2024, the Federal Government directed the allocation of N50 billion each from EFCC recoveries to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation.
Further funding of N50 billion each for NELFUND and the Consumer Credit Corporation from EFCC recoveries was subsequently approved in 2026, according to the Commission.
The EFCC said the deployment of recovered criminal proceeds to education financing and household credit demonstrated how anti-corruption enforcement could move beyond punishment and restitution to support productive national investment.
“When recovered criminal value helps finance education and household credit, enforcement moves beyond punishment to restoration and productive national use,” Olukoyede said.
The Commission also cited the conversion of NOK University, a recovered property, into the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, Kaduna State, as another example of the productive use of forfeited assets.
According to the EFCC, 1,909 students matriculated into the institution in December 2025, expanding access to tertiary education and potentially creating additional economic activity in Southern Kaduna.
Olukoyede also disclosed that another high-value private university had recently been finally forfeited to the Federal Government.
The EFCC said it secured the forfeiture of 10,053 tangible assets through interim and final court orders between October 2023 and July 2026.
The assets included 8,198 electronic items, 1,177 real estate properties, 370 automobiles and 251 plots of land.
Other forfeited assets included schools, factories, hotels, shops, oil rigs, barges, machinery and aircraft.
The Commission also recorded the forfeiture of 102 tonnes of solid minerals.
Proceeds from the disposal of assets under final forfeiture orders amounted to approximately N12.07 billion, which was paid to the Federal Government.
The EFCC said the seizures reflected an effort to strip criminal enterprises of the economic benefits derived from illegal activities, rather than limiting enforcement to the prosecution of suspects.
The agency argued that successful prosecutions and asset forfeitures create a “deterrence dividend” by raising the cost of engaging in economic and financial crimes.
The Commission further said its enforcement portfolio had expanded significantly as financial crimes became more sophisticated and technology-driven.
Across money laundering, unlicensed bureaux de change, illegal mining, virtual assets and terrorist financing, the EFCC recorded 920 cases during the period and secured 212 convictions.
Money laundering and unlicensed BDC cases accounted for the largest share of the specialised enforcement portfolio.
The Commission said it was also responding to emerging risks associated with virtual assets, illicit financial flows and criminal activity in Nigeria’s extractive sector.
In the foreign-exchange market, the EFCC said it recorded 234 cases involving unlicensed bureaux de change and secured 73 convictions over the last three years.
Olukoyede said the enforcement was designed to complement regulatory reforms by the Central Bank of Nigeria and promote a more formal, transparent and compliant retail foreign-exchange market.
He said the objective was to close channels vulnerable to illicit finance, speculation and round-tripping, while supporting broader efforts to improve macroeconomic stability.
The EFCC chairman said the Commission had continued to pursue complex and high-profile cases involving former governors, ministers, other public office holders, heads of government agencies, financial-sector operators and corporate executives.
He said recent convictions secured by the Commission included those of Saleh Mamman, Robert Orya and Chukwunyere Nwabuoku.
According to Olukoyede, status or public office would not shield anyone from investigation and prosecution where evidence of wrongdoing existed.
“The principle is simple: no office or title places anyone beyond the reach of the law,” he said.
He added that the Commission would continue to investigate professionally, prosecute cases based on available evidence and allow the courts to determine guilt or innocence.
The anti-graft agency also linked its work to Nigeria’s broader efforts to improve the integrity of the financial system and strengthen its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework.
Olukoyede said sustained enforcement involving money laundering, terrorist financing, asset freezing and confiscation, virtual assets and other high-risk sectors formed part of Nigeria’s wider national response to identified weaknesses in its financial-crime controls.
Nigeria’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force grey list in October 2025, he said, was a collective national achievement, with the EFCC’s investigations and enforcement activities contributing to the broader effort.
The Commission also highlighted its expanding cooperation with domestic regulators, law-enforcement agencies, the judiciary, ministries and revenue authorities.
Internationally, the EFCC said it had worked with agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, INTERPOL and other national and international law-enforcement bodies.
The agency said its recoveries now span multiple jurisdictions and currencies, with recovered assets also returned to foreign entities and individuals.
At the regional level, Olukoyede said he had been re-elected president of the Network of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa for another three-year term.
He said the regional platform was increasingly serving as a mechanism for dialogue and cooperation on asset recovery, financial-crime enforcement and institutional strengthening across West Africa.
Olukoyede said the Commission had undertaken institutional reforms aimed at improving professionalism, efficiency and public confidence in its operations.
The reforms included new guidelines on arrest and bail, a review of sting operations and the establishment of the Department of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, the Security Department, the Immigration and Visa Section and the Cybercrime Rapid Response Centre.
The Commission also commissioned new directorates in Enugu and Ilorin and established additional directorates in Ekiti, Anambra and Katsina states to improve citizens’ access to its services.
Internally, the EFCC introduced policies covering gifts and hospitality, conflicts of interest and exhibit-room security.
Its Internal Affairs Department was renamed and restructured as the Ethics and Integrity Department as part of what Olukoyede described as efforts to strengthen internal accountability and institutional integrity.
The chairman said the Commission was also investing heavily in digital transformation, with nearly 60 percent of its processes and operations now digitalised.
The agency is continuing investments in investigative technology, its academy and the EFCC 24/7 Cybercrime Rapid Response Centre, known as E-C2R2, in response to the growing complexity of cyber-enabled financial crimes.
Olukoyede said the Commission’s strategy was increasingly focused on moving cases through the entire enforcement chain, from intelligence gathering and investigation to prosecution, conviction, recovery and restitution.
“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 said.
He said the next phase of the Commission’s work would focus on deepening prevention, accelerating restitution, investing in investigative technology and improving professionalism in engagements with citizens.
“The work is not finished. It continues with renewed determination,” Olukoyede said, adding that the EFCC would intensify the fight against corruption and economic crime while maintaining respect for due process.
