EFCC Puts Nigeria's Real Estate Sector on Notice Over Money Laundering: What Buyers Need to Know in 2026

Nigeria's real estate sector is officially on notice from the country's top anti-fraud agency. The EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nigeria's anti-fraud agency) has moved beyond individual arrests to target the entire structure of how property is bought and sold, warning that developers, agents, and property managers are enabling money laundering - and that prosecution will follow if compliance gaps are not closed.

For anyone buying property in Nigeria, or planning to, the new enforcement framework changes what questions to ask about the professionals you hire.

What the EFCC said, and when

In February 2026, EFCC Chairman Olanipekun Olukoyede raised a public alarm about the extent to which proceeds of crime were being moved through property transactions. The agency stated that real estate had become a "safe haven for fraudsters" seeking to legitimise money obtained through corruption, cyber fraud, and other criminal activity.

The mechanism is straightforward: a criminal acquires a property using illicit funds, holds it for a period, and then sells it as if the proceeds were legitimate business income. Because property transactions in Nigeria often involve cash, informal documentation, and minimal third-party verification, the trail is harder to follow than in the banking system.

In March 2026, BusinessDay reported that developers now "risk prosecution" if they cannot demonstrate that they know the source of the funds used to pay for properties. That is a meaningful shift. Previously, enforcement targeted the fraudsters using property as a vehicle. Now the developer who accepts the payment without asking questions also faces legal exposure.

What the rules actually require

Real estate businesses in Nigeria - developers, agents, estate managers, and property consultants - are classified as DNFBPs (Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions) under Nigerian law. That classification subjects them to anti-money laundering rules that were previously applied mainly to banks.

In practical terms, a compliant property professional in Nigeria is now required to verify the identity of every buyer, including beneficial owners (the actual person behind a company purchasing property), conduct a CDD (Customer Due Diligence) assessment before accepting payment, file reports of suspicious transactions with SCUML (the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering), and submit all required reports digitally through the SCUML portal - a change that became mandatory from January 1, 2026, after SCUML announced it would no longer accept email submissions.

The requirement to identify beneficial owners is particularly significant for buyers using corporate structures. In Nigeria, it has been common for property purchases to be completed in the name of a shell company or nominee, obscuring the identity of the actual owner. Under the current rules, the developer or agent handling the transaction is required to look through that structure and identify the real buyer.

What this means for a buyer conducting due diligence

If you are buying property through a developer or agent in Nigeria, the new compliance environment gives you a practical tool for assessing legitimacy: ask directly whether the developer is registered with SCUML and whether they have a compliance officer or AML (Anti-Money Laundering) policy in place.

A legitimate developer should be able to answer those questions without hesitation. A developer who cannot name their compliance officer, cannot produce a SCUML registration number, or who pushes back against identity verification requests is operating outside the rules - and that creates legal risk for the buyer as well as the developer.

The EFCC's warnings in 2026 have specifically mentioned that buyers who knowingly participate in transactions designed to obscure ownership can also be investigated. This is not a theoretical risk for diaspora buyers who use local proxies to purchase property under someone else's name as a matter of convenience.

The SCUML portal change and what it signals

The shift to portal-only reporting that took effect in January 2026 is worth understanding in context. It means that the Nigerian government now has a structured digital record of property transactions flagged as suspicious. The EFCC and SCUML can mine that database, cross-reference it with court and registry records, and identify developers who are not filing.

Historically, compliance in Nigeria's property sector was widely ignored because enforcement was limited. The combination of a digital reporting system and public warnings of prosecution suggests that the enforcement gap is narrowing.

For a buyer, this creates a secondary check: if a developer or estate company has a poor compliance record, that information may eventually become accessible through official channels in a way it never was before.

Practical steps before you commit

Before signing any purchase agreement with a Nigerian developer or agent, confirm the following: the developer is registered with the CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission, Nigeria's business registry) and you can verify the registration online at search.cac.gov.ng; the developer or agent has a valid SCUML registration, which is mandatory for any entity handling real estate transactions above a threshold value; the property title is verifiable at the relevant state land registry (at AGIS in Abuja, or the state land bureaus in other states); and the payment is made by traceable bank transfer to a named corporate account, not cash.

The EFCC has made clear that it does not regard "I trusted the agent" as a defence for either party in a transaction that later turns out to involve illicit funds or fraud.

Bektu (https://bektu.com) is a transparency and research platform that tracks delivery histories of Nigerian developers - not a marketplace or brokerage. Cross-checking a developer's track record before signing is one of the steps that sits between reading a brochure and wiring money.

Why the timing matters

The EFCC's escalation of scrutiny in early 2026 follows a pattern of rising fraud complaints from buyers, particularly from the diaspora, who conduct property transactions remotely and have limited ability to verify claims in person. Reports this year from Vanguard and BusinessDay have pointed to Abuja as among the highest-risk cities in Nigeria for property fraud - a city where land values are high, government officials are often involved in property markets, and title documentation has historically been manipulated at the registry level itself.

The enforcement environment is changing. The question for buyers is whether the professionals they are working with have changed alongside it.