The Federal Government has expressed concern over the increasing use of Point of Sale (PoS) operators and social media platforms by terrorists and criminal networks to fund and promote their activities.The Director-General of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Major-General Adamu Laka, disclosed this on Tuesday during the Centre’s 2025 end-of-year press briefing in Abuja.
According to Laka, ransom payments remain one of the major sources of terrorism financing in Nigeria, with PoS operators now being exploited to move funds and evade security scrutiny. He explained that kidnappers often provide victims’ families with PoS account details, making it difficult for security agencies to trace the transactions.“In many cases, when we track suspicious transfers, the accounts turn out to belong to PoS operators.
The kidnappers give out the PoS number, the money is transferred, and they simply go there to withdraw it,” he said.The NCTC boss also revealed that security agencies are collaborating with major social media companies to identify and shut down accounts used by terrorists and criminal groups to spread propaganda and raise funds.“These platforms are businesses focused on growing their user base, but we engage them and explain the national security implications of certain content, and such accounts are taken down,” Laka noted.
He added that terrorist groups continue to evolve their tactics, including the use of aliases and unverified online accounts, stressing that Nigerian security agencies are constantly adapting strategies to counter emerging threats.
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