The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has directed banks, payment service banks, and other financial institutions to immediately freeze all accounts, assets, and transactions linked to six individuals and four Bureau de Change, BDC operators designated for terrorism financing.

The directive was contained in a circular dated June 24, 2026 (Ref:CMD/FCS/PUB/CIR/002/011).

According to the apex bank, the latest update to the Nigeria Sanctions List, effective June 18, 2026, is binding on all regulated institutions and requires immediate implementation.

The CBN directed financial institutions to “identify and immediately freeze, without prior notice, all funds, assets, and other economic resources belonging to, owned, held, or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the designated persons and entities.”

This comes after the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC, announced the sanctions on a Nigerian, Mukhtar Adamu, and three bureau de change companies over their alleged involvement in financing the terrorist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

In a followup, the Nigerian government released the names of six persons and three entities sanctioned for terrorism financing.

The Federal Government list indicated Ibrahim Yakubu Ogirima, Adamu Chiroma, Ibrahim Abubakar, Abdullahi Umar Usman, Babangida Muhammed, Adamu Hammajam, Abbal Bako & Sons Bureau De Change Limited, Generation Currency BDC Limited, and Nine to Nine BDC Limited.

Reacting to the development, the president of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria, Aminu Gwadebe, said the indictment should not rob all BDC operators in Nigeria.

“The overwhelming majority of licensed BDC operators comply with Nigerian laws and regulatory requirements,” he said.

The federal government is considering the reinvigoration of the cashless policy as part of broader efforts to curb the rising wave of kidnappings and related criminal activities across the country.

The consideration of strengthening the policy comes amid intensified efforts by security agencies to dismantle kidnapping syndicates and cut off their sources of funding, as authorities continue to seek sustainable solutions to the country’s security challenges.

Report quoted top security sources as mentioning that senior government officials have advised authorities at the highest level to tighten the policy, which is being viewed as one of the strategies to disrupt the operations of kidnappers, bandits and other criminal groups.

According to the sources, the move is intended to make it more difficult for criminals to receive ransom payments, which are often demanded and collected in cash to avoid detection.

One of the sources said: “Criminals prefer to receive ransom payments in cash because the money cannot be traced. Once ransom is paid through the banking system, it becomes easier to track them.”

Introduced in 2011, the policy was strengthened and made stricter in December 2022. However, after 2023, many of the stricter guidelines were relaxed.

The source further stated that security agencies believe a stricter cashless regime would strengthen intelligence gathering and improve law enforcement’s ability to monitor suspicious financial transactions linked to kidnapping networks.

Nigeria’s inflation rose for the third consecutive month to 15.93 percent in May 2026 from 15.69 percent recorded in April.

The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index and inflation data released on Monday.

This means that in May, the country’s inflation rose on a month-on-month basis by 1.75 percent.

Also, the report showed that food inflation also skyrocketed to 16.96 percent in May, up from 16.06 percent recorded the previous month.

“In May 2026, the headline inflation rate on a month-on-month basis was 1.75 percent, which was 0.39 percent lower than the rate recorded in April 2026 (2.13 percent).

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate rose to 15.93 percent, up from 15.69 percent in April 2026 and down from 26.06 percent in the same month of the preceding year (May 2025).

“The Food inflation rate in May 2026 on a month-on-month basis was 2.98 percent, down by 0.65 percentage points from April 2026 (3.63 percent). On a year-on-year basis, it was 16.96 percent and stood at 24.55 percent in the same month of the preceding year, May 2025”.

Recall that the headline inflation rate dropped in March and April, respectively even as the Central Bank of Nigeria retained the country’s interest rate 26.50 percent in its 305th Monetary Policy meeting.