The bar is in hell

Nigeria is back in the FATF’s good books, but we shouldn’t be easily impressed

Oct 27, 2025

Intro: Good morning, Big Brains. Moonshot was almost two weeks ago, and I still have not recovered. That was my last public event for the year, so do not invite me to your Christmas parties, please. This weekend was mixed—some good news, some bad. Let us get you caught up, shall we?

This Week’s Big Question: “Do you think Nigeria would be better off under Military rule?” Share your responses with us, and if we think they’re fun enough, we’ll feature them in the newsletter :) so be on the lookout.

-Franklyn

Word count: ~ 1500

Reading time ~ 8 mins

Let’s get into the news you missed during the weekend:

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has removed Nigeria from its “grey list”
Nigeria’s resident doctors are going on strike this Friday

The Big Deal

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has removed Nigeria from its “grey list”

Have you ever messed up and then had to lock in to fix your mess? Did you pat yourself on the back after you fixed it? Well, that is exactly the situation the All Progressives Congress (APC) found itself in over the weekend. And best believe these guys are patting themselves on the back hard.

On Friday, October 24, 2025, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed Nigeria from its grey list.

The FATF is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. Basically, they observe and judge every country’s ability to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing within its borders, which they classify as anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) frameworks.

Countries with bad AML and CFT frameworks get put on a moderate watchlist called the “grey list.” And the absolute worst of the worst get put on the “black list.”

The FATF is constantly watching and reassessing the positions of countries, and those who put in noticeable effort to improve their AML and CFT abilities can get their names removed from the lists.

So Nigeria getting taken off the grey list means the FATF has seen significant improvement in the government’s commitment to tackling money laundering and terror financing in Nigeria.

Nigeria was put on the FATF grey list on February 24, 2023. But the FATF had basically warned us since August 2021, when it released a report identifying 84 deficiencies in Nigeria’s AML and CFT frameworks.

Our grey listing came just days before Bola Ahmed Tinubu was announced as the winner of the 2023 presidential election, but the lack of compliance that led to it still occurred under his party, the APC, which has governed Nigeria since 2015.

Since we were put on the list, the government seems to have locked in and done everything they could to get off it. Multiple federal agencies rolled up their sleeves and did what they had to do.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) immediately began trying to address the deficiencies and agreed with the FATF on a 15-item action plan.

In November 2024, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, promised the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) that the government was making compliance a “strategic priority,” with a plan to be off the list by the second quarter of 2025.

We did it two quarters later than Cardoso had promised, but delay is not denial. We are finally in the FATF’s good books again, and that is a win.

Why is this a big deal?

The federal government itself has admitted that Nigeria loses approximately $17.72 billion to illicit financial flows. So it is very much in our own interest to comply with the FATF’s standards.

Apart from the money that is directly saved by making money laundering harder, being on a list that marks you as a haven for corruption and terror financing is obviously not a good look. Internationally, it made Nigeria a harder sell to foreign investors.

Olugbenga Agboola, CEO of Flutterwave, celebrated Nigeria finally making it off the list, saying it “restores confidence, lowers remittance and cross-border costs, and unlocks faster, cheaper payments to and from Nigeria.”

The CBN predicts it will lead to tangible benefits for businesses and households by lowering compliance costs, improving access to international finance, and making cross-border transactions faster and more affordable. This will support trade, quicken remittance inflows, and enhance access to foreign exchange.

But money is not everything. Billions might be lost through money laundering and illicit financial flows, but the effects of terror financing are thousands killed and millions displaced by fanatical violence.

It is great that Nigeria’s removal from the list might boost foreign investment, but what we really want to see is the terror groups ravaging the country being starved of funds.

It is important that Nigeria does not slip back into old habits and end up on the list again.

So the APC messed up, locked in, and now it feels like we are so back. But unlike some people on the +234, we won’t be handing out too many cookies to the ruling party.

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Nigeria’s resident doctors are going on strike this Friday

We’re not usually the type to tell grown folks what to do, but if you’ve been putting off your doctor’s appointment, we’d advise that you clear your schedule and visit that hospital while you still can. And no, this isn’t a drill; your doctors are going on strike because they are tired of FG’s bullshit.

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has announced an indefinite nationwide strike starting at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, October 31, 2025.

NARD made the announcement on Sunday, October 26, 2025, after a five-hour meeting of the association’s National Executive Council (NEC) on Saturday. And while this strike is going to mess up so many things and put lives at risk, we have to admit they have good reason to be upset with the government.

First of all, the doctors only came to this decision after giving the government a 30-day ultimatum to address their demands back in September. After being ignored, they really feel they have no other choice.

Some of the doctors’ demands include payment of outstanding arrears from the 25% and 35% upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), payment of promotion arrears, and the failure of the government to pay the 2024 accoutrement allowance despite repeated assurances from the Ministry of Health.

They also want the government to do something about bureaucratic delays in upgrading resident doctors’ ranks after postgraduate medical examinations, which leads to doctors being paid much less than their qualifications demand.

Then, they complained about the excessive and unregulated work hours that keep getting worse because of the country’s declining doctor-to-patient ratio in Nigeria. The Nigerian Doctors Association says Nigeria has only about 24,000 licensed physicians available to attend to over 200 million citizens. That means there is just one doctor for every 10,000 patients.

In 2021, NARD president Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi estimated that there were 17,000 resident doctors, which means they make up the majority of doctors in Nigeria.

There is no good time for a strike in the health sector. But there has been a spike in respiratory infections recently that has people and healthcare professionals on edge.

Meanwhile, in September 2025, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) went on alert after cases of Ebola were reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). And in October, the NCDC reported 172 deaths from Lassa fever across 21 states between September 29 and October 5.

If we are to stay on top of these situations, we need our healthcare system functioning at maximum capacity.

For the sake of our sanity, we’re choosing to believe that the government can reach an agreement with the doctors before the strike kicks off. For now, stay vigilant, wear masks where possible, and practise good hygiene.

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