Unpacking the Numbers: Three Years of EFCC's Anti-graft Campaign under Olukoyede, By Tony Egbulefu NewsDiaryOnline

The federal government's fight against corruption, economic and financial crimes took a whole new dimension from Thursday, October 19, 2023 when Ola Olukoyede took over the reins of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's leadership. Right from the outset, the past 34 months have continuously witnessed reforms and a realignment of the Commission's operations in sync with its mandate for enhanced professionalism and better enforcement and preventive outcomes. Within this period, EFCC's efforts, pursuant to its mandate have strongly taken rooted on the deployment of the anti-graft fight to catalyse the national economy, enthrone transactional credit system, amplify preventive strategies, drive enforcement on the wheels of the rule of law and reinvent the country's image. Olukoyede's work plan towards the actualisation of the Commission's mandate translated to resilient enforcement, institutional reforms, enhanced prosecution, better preventive frameworks, massive asset recovery, restitutions to fraud victims, stronger collaboration on both the local and international fronts and standout upshots on all fronts. For starters, the Commission broke its 23 years monetary asset recovery record in both national and foreign currencies in just 34 months of Olukoyede's leadership. The same in fixed assets. Recovery in naira hit a record high of ₦1, 233,612,040,411.11, (One Trillion, Two Hundred and Thirty-three Billion, Six Hundred and Twelve Million, Forty Thousand, Four Hundred and Eleven Naira, Eleven Kobo). In dollars, it hit an all-time high of $684,478,457,32, (Six Hundred and Eighty-four Million, Four Hundred and Seventy-eight Thousand, Four Hundred and Fifty-Seven Dollars, Thirty-two cents). In Pound Sterling, the recovery hit £373,905.78, (Three Hundred and Seventy-three Thousand, Nine Hundred and five Pounds, Seventy-eight Shillings) while it rose to €9,343,803.66 (Nine Million, Three Hundred and Forty-three Thousand, Eight Hundred and three Euros, Sixty-six Cents) in euros. Out of the naira recovery, approximately ₦397.26billion, representing 33 percent was made for the federal government, while the larger chunk of ₦836.34billion, representing 67 percent was made for ministries, departments and agencies, state revenue services, corporate entities, Nigerian and foreign victims of fraud. In setting another record, the Commission secured the forfeiture of 10,053 fixed assets under interim and final court orders within the period. These included 8,198 electronic items, 1,177 real-estate assets, 370 automobiles, 251 plots of land, as well as schools, factories, hotels, shops, oil rigs, barges, machinery, ocean-going vessels and aircraft. And also a forfeiture of 102 tonnes of solid minerals. On prosecution, the Commission broke yet another of its institutional record, securing 10,872 convictions out of 14,476 cases it filed in court, reflecting a measurable conviction-to-filing ratio of 75.1 per cent. In the first half of 2026 alone, the Commission recorded 1,370 convictions from 1,889 filings. Faces to the convictions include former minister of power, Saleh Mamman, jailed 75 years for N33.8 billion fraud, former Managing Director, Nigerian Import Export Bank, NEXIM, Robert Orya, jailed 490 years for N2.4 billion fraud and Chukwunyere Nwabuoku, a former acting Accountant General of the Federation, jailed 72 years for N868.4 million Fraud. Evidential to the Commission's pursuit of complex and high-profile matters is that it is at the moment prosecuting about 45 high calibre individuals, consisting nine former governors, five former ministers, sixteen former heads of agencies and 13 private sector players for corruption. The clear message from this, is that in 34 months, the Commission through enforcement and prosecution delivered a huge cleansing of the fiscal space, strengthened federal and sub-national revenue, returned working capital to institutions, companies and citizens, supported financial-market integrity, protected the extractive and digital economies, denied the corrupt and the fraudulent the enjoyment of the proceeds of their unlawful activities and burnished Nigeria's image. Beyond the numbers, the EFCC has demonstrated that recovery is only truly meaningful when its value is channelled to public good or returned to victims of fraud and indeed that the national impact of recovery is best felt when proceeds of crime are converted to productive social investment. This found application in the conversion of the former NOK University, forfeited to the federal government to a Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, Kaduna State, resulting in a total of 1,909 students' enrolment in the school in December 2025. Apart from opening up the space for more affordable tertiary education, the local economy of the university's host community will be better energised for it. The news gets even cheerier as another high net worth private university has recently been forfeited to the federal government, through the EFCC. As the federal government has indicated, it will finish the outstanding infrastructure on the over 753 housing units the Commission handed over to it on May 20, 2025 and offer them for sale to the public. The forfeiture of the estate on December 2, 2024, situated on 150,500 square meters in Lokogoma District, Abuja, stands as the EFCC's largest single asset recovery since its inception in 2003. In line with Olukoyede's pitch upon his confirmation by the Senate on October 18, 2003, that a transactional credit system was imperative for the country to stem the tide of corruption and lessen the negative impacts of cash-based economy and its physical currency dominance, the EFCC made a key contribution in the federal government's establishment of Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP) alongside the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) in August 2024. Both agencies had their start-up capital of N50 billion apiece, drawn from proceeds of crime, recovered by the EFCC. Further funding of the two agencies was subsequently approved in 2026 at also N50 billion each from recovered proceeds of crime by the Commission. Again, beyond the numbers, NELFUND has disclosed that it has disbursed over N322 billion in loans to more than 1.6 million students, while the CREDICORP said it has disbursed over N37 billion in consumer credit to more than 200,000 civil servants. The work of the Commission within the period equally contributed to improving the integrity of Nigeria's financial space. The sustained enforcement in money laundering, terrorist financing, asset freezing, virtual assets and other higher-risk sectors within the period, formed part of Nigeria's wider national effort at implementing the Financial Action Task Force, FATF, Anti-money Money Laundering and Counter- Terrorism framework that led to Nigeria's removal from FATF's Grey List in October 2025. Olukoyede's reform and restructuring that repositioned the EFCC in the past 34 months include new guidelines on arrest and bail, a review of the Commission's sting operations, the establishment of the Department of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, (FRAC), Security Department, Immigration and Visa Fraud Section, the EFCC 97.3 FM and Cybercrime Rapid Response Centre, (E-C2R2). The E-C2R2 is equipped with hotlines for 24hours uninhibited telephone access for members of the public to fill the Commission in on cyber-enabled financial crimes in both real time and static reporting. At the moment, nearly 60 percent of processes and operations of the EFCC have been digitized. The Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, (FRAC), deserves a special mention. It is Olukoyede's shot at corruption and financial crime prevention, which instantly become the Commission's silver bullet in the examination of the systemic vulnerabilities that allow corruption to fester in MDAs. The department identifies gaps and vulnerabilities that promote fraud in MDAs, assesses and analyses the identified gaps. It sets a threshold to mitigate the identified gaps and ensures that MDAs take proactive steps at preventing the occurrence of the identified risks through an effective project management mechanism. It now implements the aspects of the Commission's Corruption Prevention Strategies that deal with risk-based approaches in the fight against corruption, economic and financial crimes. It drives the Commission's corruption and financial crime preventive measures that are tailored for budget monitoring and implementation in MDAs. It focuses attention on the budgets of the three arms of government with real time monitoring and tracking of their allocations. With FRAC, the EFCC goes into MDAs and monitors in real time the implementation of their budgets and follows the trail of their allocations as the money is being released. With FRAC, the EFCC is no longer reactionary to incidences of corruption in MDAs. It blocks them from happening. As part of his promotion of proactive deterrence, Olukoyede catalysed action on the establishment of Cybercrime Research Centre in the Commission's New Academy in Giri, Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT. The drive anchors in his desire to redirect the youth onto the path of ethical values and further entrench integrity in Nigeria's financial space. As a hub for advanced research, training, and capacity building in the fight against cybercrimes, the Centre will focus on the three key areas of Advanced Fraud Detection and Prevention; Youth Empowerment and Capacity Building and Technological Advancement and Resource Facility. In the period under review, Olukoyede commissioned the Enugu and Ilorin directorates and established new directorates in Ekiti, Anambra and Katsina states, which has significantly improved Nigerians' access to the Commission. Collaboration is central to Olukoyede's successes. Locally, he prioritised partnership and synergy with other law-enforcement agencies, regulators, the judiciary, MDAs, and state revenue authorities. At the sub regional level, he is currently a two-term President of the Network of National Anti-corruption Institutions in West Africa, NACIWA. As the rallying point of all anti-corruption institutions in the sub-region, NACIWA has become a crucial platform for regional dialogue on asset recovery, money laundering, other financial crimes enforcement and institutional strengthening in West Africa. Beyond Africa, the EFCC under Olukoyede has forged strong bonds with the US, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, foreign embassies, United Kingdom's National Crime Agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, INTERPOL and other international law-enforcement agencies. Tony Egbulefu is of the Media & Publicity Unit of the Public Affairs Department of the EFCC