Senate on Tuesday at the plenary confirmed the appointment of Ms Hafsat Abubakar Bakari as Director of Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU by President Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu had in a letter addressed to the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio requested the Red Chamber to confirm Bakari as the NFIU boss.
She replaced Modibbo Tukur who was relieved of his job by the President in June 2023.
The confirmation of Bakari was sequel to the consideration of a report by the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, chaired by Senator Udende Emmanuel (APC Benue North East) after she had been screened.
Based on a record before the Senate, Bakari is a lawyer and financial intelligence expert with years of experience in anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and counter-proliferation financing
Before her appointment as the NFIU boss, she had served as the Deputy Director at the agency where she was at different times the Head of the General Services Unit; Head of the Strategy and Reorientation Unit, and Head of the Board Secretariat of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Emmanuel Udende noted in a chat with newsmen after her screening on Monday that “Ms. Bakare will bring her wealth of experience and expertise to bare in the discharge of her mandate in this critical role, especially in view of the President Bola Tinubu’s war against illicit financial flows and other sharp practices currently prevalent in segments of the nation’s foreign exchange markets.”
The NFIU, a creation of the National Assembly is the federal agency responsible for collecting and analyzing disclosures from reporting organizations, in order to produce financial intelligence to other agencies combating money laundering, terrorism, and other financial crimes.
It was established in 2004 as an autonomous unit within the central coordinating body for the country’s anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and counter-proliferation financing, AML/CFT/CPF framework of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
