The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed banks and other financial institutions to deploy automated anti-money laundering solutions capable of detecting suspicious transactions in real time as part of efforts to strengthen financial crime monitoring in the country.
The directive was contained in a circular dated March 10, 2026, titled “Issuance of Baseline Standards for Automated Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Solution for Financial Institutions in Nigeria.”
The circular, signed by the Director of Banking Supervision, Akinwunmi Olubukola, and Olubunmi
Ayodele-Oni for the Director of the Compliance Department, applies to deposit money banks, mobile money operators, international money transfer operators, payment service providers and other regulated financial institutions.
According to the apex bank, the new standards are designed to enhance Nigeria’s financial crime detection framework as the financial services sector becomes increasingly digital and complex.
The CBN said the framework would strengthen the detection and reporting of suspicious transactions while ensuring improved compliance with anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing and counter-proliferation financing regulations.
“The Baseline Standards provide a framework for implementing automated solutions that strengthen the detection and reporting of suspicious transactions in real time and enhance compliance with applicable AML/CFT/CPF laws and regulations,” the circular stated.
Under the directive, deposit money banks have been given 18 months to fully comply with the new standards, while other financial institutions have 24 months to meet the requirements.
The apex bank also directed all affected institutions to submit detailed implementation roadmaps to its Compliance Department within three months of the issuance of the circular.
The regulator explained that the move became necessary due to the increasing complexity of financial transactions and the limitations associated with manual compliance processes.
“As financial services become increasingly digitised and complex, manual AML/CFT/CPF controls are no longer sufficient to manage evolving risks,” the CBN noted.
Financial institutions are therefore expected to deploy automated AML solutions capable of supporting risk-based customer due diligence, detecting suspicious activities promptly and ensuring accurate reporting to regulators and other relevant authorities.
The guidelines also require the systems to support key compliance functions such as customer identification and verification, risk assessment and profiling, sanctions and politically exposed persons screening, transaction monitoring, investigation management, regulatory reporting as well as audit and governance processes.
According to the CBN, the AML platforms must also be integrated with core banking systems and other operational platforms to enable effective monitoring of transactions across products, channels and customer categories.
The apex bank added that financial institutions could adopt emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics to enhance their capacity to detect suspicious patterns and financial crimes.
However, it emphasised that such technologies must be subject to proper governance and regular validation.
“Financial institutions are required to perform independent validation of all artificial intelligence and machine-learning models at least annually and upon significant change covering accuracy, performance drift, fairness audits, bias testing and human review where appropriate,” the CBN said.
The regulator also directed financial institutions to strengthen their know-your-customer processes through automated systems integrated with national identity infrastructure such as the Bank Verification Number and National Identification Number databases to support real-time identity verification.
Additionally, AML platforms must screen customers and transactions against domestic and international sanctions lists, politically exposed persons registers, internal watchlists and adverse media sources.
The systems are also expected to block account onboarding or transactions where confirmed sanctions matches occur in line with regulatory requirements.
Beyond anti-money laundering monitoring, the guidelines encourage institutions to deploy automated fraud detection systems across electronic channels, card payments, deposits and lending platforms.
“The AML solution shall monitor activities across relevant channels in real time or near real time to detect unusual patterns indicative of fraud,” the document stated.
The systems must also support enterprise case management tools capable of automatically generating, assigning and tracking investigations arising from suspicious activity alerts.
The CBN said compliance with the standards would be monitored through off-site surveillance, on-site examinations and thematic reviews.
It warned that institutions that fail to comply with the new requirements may face regulatory sanctions.
“Institutions that fail to meet these Baseline Standards, or that operate AML solutions in a manner that results in ineffective AML/CFT/CPF control, may be subject to remedial directives, administrative sanctions and penalties in line with extant laws and regulations,” the apex bank said.
The regulator added that the new framework represents the minimum compliance threshold and may be strengthened depending on the risk profile and operational complexity of individual institutions.
According to the CBN, the initiative is expected to improve Nigeria’s capacity to prevent and detect money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing while reinforcing the integrity and stability of the country’s financial system
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