Nigeria’s battle against real-estate money laundering

By Isaac Atunlute

For years, Nigeria’s real estate sector has remained a silent funnel for illicit money—luxury homes rising from proceeds of fraud, embezzlement, and other financial crimes and not from hard-earned savings. 

The nation’s anticorruption agency has reached its breaking point and is beginning to pay greater attention.

At a stakeholder event in Abuja in early August, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, stirred public alarm about property developers, citing the sector as among the most susceptible avenues for syphoning illicit money within the country.

It has emerged that unchecked property sales and poor customer vetting have turned parts of the real estate sector into a conduit for laundering illicit funds. 

Reports show that money laundering is particularly common among certain property developers and industry players.

Rather than relying solely on punitive measures, the focus is shifting toward systemic change — starting with stronger Know-Your-Customer, or KYC, procedures. 

Developers are being urged to thoroughly scrutinise investors, even when the law does not explicitly require it, with the warning that any property traced to stolen funds could be recovered.

This marks a subtle but important shift from targeting individual transactions to addressing the enabling structures—lax policies, informal dealings, and loopholes that make such practices possible. 

It also reflects a push to balance enforcement with collaboration, recognising that a thriving, transparent real estate sector can create jobs, reduce incentives for crime, and tackle corruption at its roots.

There are, however, several problems, as some of the real estate is still sold in cash with minimal or no paper trail.

A wider trend towards reform

EFCC’s sharpened focus on real estate isn’t happening in a vacuum. Across Nigeria and globally, similar efforts are beginning to take root.

In Lagos State, for instance, the government improved its property registration process, conveying property into digital form in an effort to combat multiple allocation and title fraud—a problem often exploited by money launderers. 

And the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, an arm of the EFCC , has been stepping up its registration and monitoring over Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions, such as real estate enterprises.

Internationally, the United Kingdom and Canada, among other countries, have effective registers of beneficial ownership requiring disclosure about who owns properties, especially in high-risk jurisdictions. 

Adapting similar models in Nigeria, with strong enforcement and public accessibility, could help close loopholes exploited by shell companies, improve transaction transparency, and build greater confidence in the real estate sector.

Making collaborative efforts

Still this effort will not be effective without collaboration with industries; certain real estate companies embraced fundamental KYC procedures voluntarily and coordinated with anticorruption agencies.

Some have called for clearer legal frameworks to make compliance less ambiguous and to level the playing field for developers.

Such a model includes the model of the Public Private Development Centre’s open contracting initiative to promote openness in land-based and infrastructure transactions. 

Although it is not specifically targeted towards real estate per se, the model is a replicable design for ensuring accountability and for civil society tracking.

Beyond enforcement

EFCC’s new strategy—tough talk combined with open-door assistance—is a superior approach to preventing real estate-based money laundering. 

The enforcement agencies still fight against resource constraints as well as constraints in jurisdiction.

EFCC is beginning to reshape how corruption in real estate is addressed by plugging the very gaps that allow such crimes to happen in the first place.