US Freezes Assets of Nigerian Linked to ISIS Funding
A Nigerian national and three currency exchange firms operating in Lagos and Kano now sit on Washington’s terrorism blacklist, after the United States accused them of channelling funds for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria through Nigeria’s bureau de change sector.
The designations, announced on Monday, June 22, 2026, by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Department of State, named Mukhtar Adamu Muhammad as a financial facilitator for ISIS West Africa. Muhammad, born on August 2, 1990, and residing in the Agege area of Lagos, was designated “for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods and services to or in support of, ISIS-WA.”
The three firms, said to be owned or controlled by Muhammad, are Generation Currency Bureau de Change Limited and Nine to Nine Exchange Bureau de Change Limited, both in Lagos, and Manhattan Bureau de Change Limited in Kano. State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott said the wider action targeted three individuals and six entities across France, Syria, Türkiye, and Nigeria.
“We are cutting off the financial lifelines from around the world that enable ISIS to fund attacks, support its regional affiliates, and threaten civilians, including religious minorities,” Pigott said. He described a network that “continues to decentralise its operations and rely on financial intermediaries to connect its global network.”
The other designated individuals are France-based Miloud Abderrahmane, accused of passing information on explosives to ISIS supporters, and Syria-based Abdelhakim Boukich, alleged to have moved funds through cryptocurrency for ISIS associates in several countries, including the United States.
The action was taken under Executive Order 13224, as amended. As a result of the designations, all assets and property interests belonging to the named individuals and entities that fall under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and the sanctions prohibit U.S. persons from conducting business with those listed. The Treasury also warned that foreign financial institutions found to be knowingly facilitating substantial transactions for the sanctioned persons could face secondary sanctions, including restrictions on correspondent banking relationships in the United States.
The crackdown is not Washington’s first move against terror financing routed through Nigeria. In March 2022, OFAC sanctioned six individuals accused of raising and transferring funds to Boko Haram, including persons convicted in the United Arab Emirates for facilitating the transfer of approximately $782,000 from Dubai to support terrorist activities in Nigeria. The United States has also designated ISIS West Africa as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity. ISIS itself, formerly known as al-Qa’ida in Iraq, was first placed under the global terrorist authority in 2004.
The designations come amid deepening security cooperation between Abuja and Washington. The State Department reaffirmed its “strong partnership with Nigeria,” which joined the United States in the May 16, 2026 operation that resulted in the killing of Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the number two official in ISIS. Domestically, Nigeria has tightened its own measures, with the Federal High Court in 2022 ordering the freezing of accounts linked to suspected terror financiers on the recommendation of the Nigeria Sanctions Committee.
Pigott said the United States would press on. “We will continue to use every diplomatic and legal tool available to hold ISIS and its supporters accountable, wherever they operate, and however they move money,” he said.