Artificial intelligence is transforming the landscape of financial crime, and Nigeria's banks, fintechs, and law enforcement agencies are increasingly convinced they must evolve alongside it. The stakes are particularly high in Africa's largest economy, where mobile money adoption, digital payment rails, and a fast-growing fintech sector have expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals even as they deepen financial inclusion.

This was the overriding message at the Adhere Compliance Frontline Forum, organized by SmartComply at the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos. The gathering convened executives from banks, fintech firms, regulators, and security agencies to explore how the financial industry can outpace fraudsters who now wield AI and other digital tools to siphon funds.

Attendees included representatives from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), Paystack, Payaza, ChamsSwitch, Rack Centre, Hydrogen Payment Services, Novac Payments, Odu'a Investment Company, Utila, Vertiv, and Fastspeed Technologies.

SmartComply used the occasion to unveil Adhere, its AI-powered compliance platform, along with a new industry report titled The Compliance Reckoning, which analyzes how financial crime and regulatory compliance are evolving across Nigeria's financial sector.

Cybercrime Has Replaced the Armed Robber

Delivering the keynote address, Assistant Inspector-General of Police Uche Henry Ifeanyi — who also chairs INTERPOL's African Working Group on Cybercrime — said financial crime has shifted dramatically in recent years.

Banks rarely contend with armed robbers entering their halls anymore, he noted. Instead, today's criminals operate behind laptops and smartphones, attacking payment systems from anywhere in the world. The shift mirrors a global trend in which physical bank heists have given way to digital intrusions, but it carries particular weight in Nigeria, where mobile-led transactions now account for a growing share of retail payments.

"Arm robbers no longer carry weapons. They carry laptops and phones," Ifeanyi said.

He explained that criminals now rely on tactics such as SIM swap fraud, ransomware attacks, insider collaboration, and social engineering. Rather than breaking into a bank vault, fraudsters trick people into surrendering sensitive information — PINs, one-time passwords (OTPs), or banking credentials. In some cases, they exploit weak security systems or collude with insiders who have access to financial platforms.

For this reason, the cybercrime chief argued, financial institutions can no longer depend on traditional security measures alone. AI-powered security tools are becoming indispensable because they can monitor millions of transactions in real time and flag anomalous behavior before money vanishes.

"Nigeria's ATM Card Is the Safest in the World"

Ifeanyi made a claim that surprised many attendees.

"Nigeria's ATM card is the safest card in the world," he said, explaining that there has never been a successful hack of the ATM card technology itself. Most ATM-related fraud, he said, occurs because criminals manipulate people — not because they defeat the card's security. Nigeria's chip-and-PIN infrastructure, rolled out under the auspices of the CBN and NIBSS, is widely regarded as robust on the card itself; the vulnerability, as Ifeanyi stressed, lies in human manipulation.

He warned that if Nigeria fails to strengthen its cybercrime response, financial crime could become a bigger threat than terrorism within the next five to ten years.

Panel One: Meeting the CBN's AML Baseline Requirements

The forum's first panel examined how banks and fintechs can meet the Central Bank of Nigeria's Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Baseline Requirements, which form part of a broader regulatory architecture the CBN has been tightening as digital financial services expand.

Moderated by Daniel Obot, Divisional CEO of Seequre, the session featured Rowland Okondor, Vice President of Products at Novac Payments; Abiodun Gbade, Head of IT at Odu'a Investment Company; Ayodeji Jaiyeola, Chief Information Security Officer at Hydrogen Payment Services; Oluwatosin Obadimu, Manager of the Industry Fraud Desk at NIBSS; and Adebowale Adegbite, Enterprise Business Manager at Fastspeed Technologies.

The panel argued that rather than treating compliance as a post-transaction reporting exercise, banks should be able to detect risks as transactions unfold. For instance, if a customer who typically transfers ₦50,000 suddenly attempts to move ₦20 million from a new location on an unfamiliar device, an intelligent monitoring system should immediately flag the transaction for review before the funds leave the account.

Speakers noted that many financial institutions still struggle with legacy banking systems, fragmented customer data, and limited technical expertise, all of which hinder real-time monitoring. They also emphasized that stronger collaboration among banks would make it harder for fraudsters to shuttle stolen funds across multiple institutions undetected.

Following the session, SmartComply Chief Technology Officer Anita Ajalla unveiled Adhere, demonstrating how the platform consolidates transaction monitoring, identity verification, sanctions screening, fraud detection, and regulatory reporting into a single compliance system.

Panel Two: AI and the Evolution of Financial Crime

The second panel, moderated by Olajumoke Rufus, Field Marketing Manager for Central Africa at Vertiv, explored how artificial intelligence is reshaping financial crime.

The discussion featured ACP Bashir Abdullahi, Assistant Director of the Cybercrime Digital Forensics Lab at the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre; Ibrahim Shazali, Director of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control at the EFCC; and Kehinde Omotoso, Head of Engineering at Payaza.

Speakers described how fraud has advanced from basic scams to sophisticated attacks involving synthetic identities — where criminals blend genuine and fabricated information to construct entirely new identities capable of circumventing security checks.

Tracing these crimes has grown markedly harder, they said, because stolen money frequently moves through several bank accounts within minutes, rendering manual investigations nearly impossible. The speed of these fund transfers reflects the very efficiency gains Nigeria's instant payment infrastructure was designed to deliver — gains that fraudsters now exploit.

Their conclusion was direct: if criminals are leveraging AI to grow smarter, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies must likewise adopt AI to detect and interdict them faster.

Panel Three: Rethinking Compliance in the AI Era

The final panel, moderated by Temitayo Jaiyeola, Senior Reporter at TechCabal, featured David Samson, Fraud Investigation Manager at Paystack; Gbemisola Osunrinde, Group Managing Director of SmartComply; Francis Ogbuka, Head of Africa at Utila; Mudiaga Umukoro, Managing Director and CEO of ChamsSwitch; and Kelechi Ohalete, Governance, Risk and Compliance Analyst at Rack Centre.

The discussion centered on how financial institutions should approach compliance as AI becomes embedded in everyday financial services.

The panellists agreed that compliance should no longer be viewed as a checklist item completed after transactions are done. Instead, security checks should be woven throughout every stage of a transaction so that suspicious activity can be intercepted before losses occur.

They also called for deeper information sharing among banks, fintechs, regulators, and law enforcement agencies, noting that fraudsters already collaborate across borders while many institutions still operate in isolation.

The consensus across the forum was unmistakable: financial crime is evolving faster than ever, and keeping pace will demand more than tougher regulations. It will require smarter technology, closer collaboration, and systems capable of identifying threats before customers become victims.