By Dayo Johnson Akure

A financial crimes expert, lawyer and accountant, Joshua Olugbenga Fatogun, has called for increased funding, specialised training, technological capacity and stronger legislative backing for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-corruption agencies to tackle what he described as “AI-Yahoo” fraud in Nigeria.

Speaking in an exclusive interview, the Sheffield Hallam University alumnus warned that Nigeria must urgently establish a coordinated national framework to address artificial intelligence-enabled financial crimes.

Fatogun said AI has fundamentally transformed cybercrime by equipping fraudsters with tools to clone voices, generate realistic videos, create fake identities, automate phishing campaigns and execute sophisticated scams at scale.

He noted that Nigeria’s growing digital economy, driven by online banking, mobile payments and fintech innovation, has expanded financial inclusion but also exposed the country to emerging technology-driven fraud risks.

“The concern is that one individual equipped with advanced AI tools can potentially carry out fraudulent activities that would have previously required an entire criminal network. This makes the threat faster, cheaper, more scalable and much harder to detect,” he said.

Fatogun, a compliance specialist and former NSCDC criminal prosecutor, commended the EFCC, ICPC, Nigeria Police Force, DSS and NSCDC for operating in a fast-evolving environment and recording successes against financial fraud and corruption.

However, he stressed that AI has introduced a new layer of complexity. “The issue is not that our agencies are underperforming; rather, the threat itself is evolving at an unprecedented pace,” he stated.

He proposed a National Framework for Combating AI-Enabled Financial Crime built on seven pillars:

These include ” a National AI Fraud Intelligence Centre for real-time information sharing among security agencies, banks, fintechs, telcos, regulators and cybersecurity experts, digital forensics units within EFCC, ICPC, Police, DSS and NSCDC to handle deepfakes, synthetic identity fraud, AI-enabled money laundering and crypto crime and an update laws not designed for an era where AI can impersonate individuals or generate fraudulent evidence.

Others according to him include *Digital trust education to alert Nigerians to convincing AI-generated scams, professional development for investigators, prosecutors, judges and compliance officers, deployment of responsible AI tools by banks and government agencies for real-time fraud prevention and coordinated global responses since cybercrime is transnational.

Fatogun also warned about deepfake risks and urged security agencies to strengthen collaboration, forensics and intelligence systems. He expressed optimism that with the right policies and investment, Nigeria could lead the continent in AI governance and cyber resilience.