Top Nigerian regulatory and legal bodies have linked the surge in money laundering activities within the real estate sector to outdated land administration systems and weak regulatory oversight.
At a high-level policy dialogue in Abuja, EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede, NBA President Afam Osigwe (SAN), and BPP Director-General Dr. Adebowale Adedokun jointly emphasized that the sector’s vulnerability to illicit financial activities stems from poor transparency, cumbersome processes, and the absence of modern legal frameworks.
Olukoyede revealed that real estate has become a haven for money laundering, with many estate projects funded through suspicious financial inflows. “The current structure allows developers to bypass scrutiny, making it easy to launder money,” he said.
He added that many properties are abandoned midway, with investigations revealing that some are backed by diverted public funds. “We’ve identified several housing estates funded by corrupt civil servants. Once the stolen funds stop, projects are abandoned,” he said, noting that the EFCC has initiated interim forfeiture processes for around 15 such estates.
The EFCC boss called for the use of digital tools like a functional Beneficial Ownership Register to trace the true owners of real estate holdings and urged a shift away from Nigeria’s cash-heavy economy, which he described as fertile ground for corruption. He also encouraged real estate developers to conduct thorough due diligence on clients.
NBA President Afam Osigwe criticized the country’s outdated land documentation system, saying the requirement for a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) just to verify ownership is archaic and inefficient. “In other countries, property details are accessible in minutes. Here, it’s opaque and frustrating,” he said.
He stressed the need for systemic reform and advocated for the deployment of technology to improve transparency and ease of access to property records.
BPP’s Adedokun highlighted how public funds are often misused in real estate projects due to procurement loopholes. He explained that large disparities between actual project costs and reported figures provide the excess funds that end up being laundered. “People use real estate to stash untraceable money because there are no effective controls,” he warned.
Adedokun stated that collaboration between procurement agencies and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is underway to tighten project monitoring and prevent contract abuse.
The event, hosted by law firm The Law Corridor, brought together legal experts, regulators, and industry stakeholders to explore reforms aimed at tackling fraudulent property transactions, ensuring compliance with anti-money laundering policies, and protecting buyers from exploitation.
The consensus was clear: unless Nigeria modernizes its land and property administration systems, the real estate sector will remain a major channel for laundering illicit funds.
