The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered more than N1.23 trillion and $684.48 million in proceeds of economic and financial crimes, secured 10,872 convictions and dismissed more than 40 personnel for alleged corruption and financial malpractice under the leadership of its Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede.
Olukoyede disclosed the figures on Monday, August 31, 2026, while presenting the Commission’s stewardship report to media executives and journalists at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja.
The report detailed the agency’s enforcement activities, asset recoveries, prosecutions, restitution efforts, international cooperation and internal reforms since October 2023.
According to Olukoyede, between October 1, 2023 and June 30, 2026, the EFCC recovered N1,233,612,040,411.11, $684,478,457.32, £373,905.78 and €9,343,803.66, in addition to recoveries made in other currencies.
He said about N397.26 billion, representing 33 per cent of the total naira recovery, constituted direct recoveries for the Federal Government, while N836.34 billion, or 67 per cent, was recovered on behalf of ministries, departments and agencies, state revenue services, companies, individuals and foreign victims.
Olukoyede said the figures showed that roughly two out of every three naira recovered by the Commission during the period were recovered for beneficiaries other than the Federal Government.
He described asset recovery as a central pillar of the EFCC’s anti-corruption mandate, but stressed that the ultimate value of recovery was in returning funds and assets to legitimate beneficiaries and converting criminal proceeds into public value.
The EFCC chairman disclosed that N661.32 billion and $492.37 million had been released to beneficiaries during the period under review.
Of the naira amount, approximately N325.35 billion was released directly to individuals and corporate bodies, while about N335.97 billion was returned to ministries, departments and agencies, the Nigerian Revenue Service, state internal revenue services, other public institutions, companies and individuals.
Olukoyede also disclosed that EFCC enforcement activities resulted in approximately N288.1 billion in federal and state tax recoveries.
He said about N173.2 billion represented federal tax recoveries, while N114.9 billion was attributed to state internal revenue services.
The chairman stressed that the figures represented the enforcement of existing tax obligations rather than the introduction of new taxes.
The Commission also recorded about N257.2 billion in recoveries for federal ministries, departments and agencies, which Olukoyede said demonstrated how anti-corruption enforcement could strengthen public revenue without imposing additional taxes on citizens.
Giving a broader breakdown of the EFCC’s enforcement record between October 2023 and July 2026, Olukoyede said the Commission received 49,673 petitions, investigated 39,615 cases, filed 14,476 cases in court and secured 10,872 convictions.
The figures represent a conviction-to-filing ratio of approximately 75.1 per cent.
In the first half of 2026 alone, he said the Commission secured 1,370 convictions from 1,889 cases filed in court.
Olukoyede said the figures reflected a prosecutorial approach focused on investigation, evidence gathering and sustainable courtroom outcomes rather than merely announcing arrests.
He added that an analysis of petitions and cases handled by the Commission had revealed significant changes in Nigeria’s financial crime landscape.
Between 2024 and 2026 year-to-date, the EFCC recorded 46,288 offences across nine major crime categories, with advance fee fraud and cybercrime accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total.
According to him, recorded offences increased by 24.1 per cent between 2024 and 2025, with significant increases in procurement fraud, bank fraud, cybercrime and economic-governance-related offences.
He said the trend showed that the EFCC’s responsibilities extended beyond politically exposed persons and major public corruption cases to protecting ordinary Nigerians, businesses and institutions from fraud and cyber-enabled financial crimes.
Olukoyede also reaffirmed what he described as the Commission’s “no sacred cows” approach to high-profile investigations.
He said the EFCC’s portfolio included investigations and prosecutions involving former governors, ministers, public office holders, heads of government agencies, financial-sector operators and corporate executives.
He cited the convictions of Saleh Mamman, Robert Orya and Chukwunyere Nwabuoku as examples of cases pursued by the Commission, stressing that public office, political influence or social status should not place anyone beyond the reach of the law.
Olukoyede maintained that the EFCC’s responsibility was to investigate professionally, prosecute on the strength of evidence and allow the courts to determine guilt or innocence.
In specialised financial crime enforcement, he said the Commission recorded 920 cases involving areas such as money laundering, unlicensed bureaux de change operations, illegal mining, virtual assets and terrorist financing. The cases resulted in 212 convictions, while several other investigations and prosecutions remained ongoing.
Money laundering and unlicensed bureaux de change operations, he said, made up the largest proportion of the specialised enforcement portfolio, while the Commission was also responding to emerging risks involving virtual assets and illicit financial flows from the extractive sector.
On intervention in the foreign exchange market, Olukoyede disclosed that the Commission recorded 234 cases involving bureaux de change and secured 73 convictions.
He said enforcement against unlicensed operators complemented regulatory measures by the Central Bank of Nigeria and was aimed at promoting a more formal, transparent and compliant retail foreign exchange market while closing channels susceptible to illicit finance, round-tripping and speculation.
Beyond cash recoveries, the EFCC secured forfeiture orders covering 10,053 tangible assets between October 2023 and July 2026.
The forfeited assets included 8,198 electronic items, 1,177 real estate properties, 370 vehicles and 251 plots of land.
Other assets forfeited through court processes included schools, factories, hotels, shops, oil rigs, barges, machinery and aircraft, as well as 102 tonnes of solid minerals.
Olukoyede said approximately N12.07 billion realised from the disposal of assets under final forfeiture orders was paid into the coffers of the Federal Government.
He also pointed to the conversion of the forfeited NOK University in Kachia, Kaduna State, into the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, as an example of transforming recovered assets into productive public resources.
According to him, 1,909 students matriculated at the institution in December 2025, while the university was expected to create educational opportunities and stimulate economic activity in Southern Kaduna.
He further disclosed that another private university classified as a high-value asset had recently been finally forfeited to the Federal Government.
Olukoyede also highlighted the use of recovered funds to support social programmes.
He recalled that in August 2024, the Federal Government directed that N50 billion each from EFCC recoveries be allocated to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund and the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation.
He said another N50 billion each for NELFUND and the Consumer Credit Corporation was subsequently approved from EFCC recoveries in 2026.
According to him, channelling recovered proceeds of crime into education and consumer credit represented a broader approach to anti-corruption enforcement, in which stolen value is restored to productive national use.
The EFCC chairman also linked the Commission’s sustained enforcement in money laundering, terrorist financing, asset freezing, confiscation, virtual assets and other high-risk sectors to Nigeria’s broader efforts to strengthen its anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism framework.
He described Nigeria’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force Grey List in October 2025 as a national achievement, saying the EFCC’s enforcement and casework contributed to the collective effort to address deficiencies in the country’s financial compliance architecture.
Olukoyede further emphasised the importance of international cooperation, saying increasingly sophisticated and transnational financial crimes could not be effectively tackled by national law enforcement agencies acting alone.
He listed the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United Kingdom National Crime Agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and INTERPOL among the international partners with which the EFCC collaborates.
Domestically, he said the Commission works with other law enforcement agencies, regulators, the judiciary, ministries, departments and agencies and state revenue authorities.
He noted that several EFCC recoveries involved multiple jurisdictions and currencies, with recovered assets also returned to foreign governments, organisations and individuals.
At the regional level, Olukoyede disclosed that he had been re-elected President of the Network of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa for another three-year term.
He described NACIWA as an important platform for regional collaboration on asset recovery, enforcement and institutional capacity building.
The chairman also used the briefing to unveil measures aimed at strengthening integrity within the EFCC itself.
He disclosed that more than 40 employees of the Commission had been dismissed for alleged corruption and financial malpractice during approximately the last two and a half to three years, with more than five already facing prosecution.
“In the past two and a half years or three years of my service, I’ve asked them to dismiss over 40 staff on account of corruption and financial malpractice. More than five of them are being prosecuted at the moment,” he said.
Olukoyede said it would be inconsistent for the EFCC to investigate and prosecute officials of other institutions for corrupt practices while merely dismissing its own personnel for comparable alleged misconduct.
“Because if that is what people do in other agencies and I arrest them, I investigate them, I prosecute them, why must I just dismiss you if you do it within our own system and I’m not prosecuting you?” he asked.
He said case files involving other dismissed personnel were being processed for possible prosecution, adding that some of the cases were already before the courts.
As part of what he described as an internal cleansing process, Olukoyede disclosed that the former Department of Internal Affairs had been renamed and restructured as the Department of Ethics and Integrity.
The change, he said, was intended to reinforce ethical standards within the Commission and ensure that personnel of an anti-corruption agency were themselves held to strict integrity requirements.
The EFCC has also developed policies covering gifts and hospitality, conflicts of interest and exhibit-room security.
Under the proposed gift policy, officials would be required to declare gifts and assets above prescribed thresholds, including relevant gifts received from relatives living abroad.
Olukoyede said the framework would assist the Commission in assessing whether the declared income and assets of its personnel were consistent with their lifestyles.
“You must be sure that your hands are clean. You can’t be fighting corruption when your hands are soiled with corrupt practices,” he said.
The Commission has also introduced new guidelines on arrest and bail, reviewed its approach to sting operations and established specialised structures, including the Department of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, a Security Department, an Immigration and Visa Section and a Cybercrime Rapid Response Centre.
It also commissioned its Enugu and Ilorin Directorates and established new directorates in Ekiti, Anambra and Katsina states.
Digital transformation has equally become a major part of the Commission’s reforms, with Olukoyede saying approximately 60 per cent of EFCC processes and operations had now been digitalised.
The Commission is also investing in its new Academy, EFCC Radio and the EFCC 24/7 Cybercrime Rapid Response Centre, which he said was developed in response to increasingly sophisticated cyber-enabled financial crimes.
Reflecting on the Commission’s overall performance, Olukoyede said EFCC success should not be measured merely by arrests, prosecutions or the amount of money recovered.
According to him, the objective was to transform intelligence into prevention, petitions into investigations, investigations into prosecutions, prosecutions into convictions and recoveries into restitution and measurable value for Nigerians.
“We are not merely counting arrests,” he said, stressing that anti-corruption enforcement should ultimately produce economic, institutional and social benefits.
Looking ahead, Olukoyede identified deeper preventive measures, faster restitution of recovered assets, improved investigative technology and greater professionalism in interactions with members of the public as priorities for the Commission’s next phase.
He pledged that the EFCC would continue combating corruption and economic crimes while respecting due process and focusing increasingly on outcomes capable of delivering measurable public value.
The chairman thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Assembly, the judiciary, civil society organisations, the media and Nigerians for supporting the Commission, adding that the EFCC would not take public confidence and trust for granted.
Olukoyede said the ultimate goal remained to ensure that the fight against corruption strengthens the rule of law, improves Nigeria’s transactional credibility and international image, stimulates economic growth, supports investment and ensures that recovered criminal proceeds are translated into restitution, public assets, revenue and opportunities for Nigerians.
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