EFCC chairman Abudlrasheed Bawa has raised the alarm about the unregulated use of foreign currencies for transactions in the real estate sector.

At a workshop in Abuja on Monday, Mr Bawa, who spoke through his chief of staff, Hadiza Zubairu, said an evaluation report placed real estate as the second industry most vulnerable to money laundering activities in Nigeria.

Popular cities such as Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Lagos, according to Mr Bawa, are major cities where properties are regularly purchased, often in cash and foreign currencies.

The EFCC chief claimed criminals were exploiting weak regulations, regulatory bodies’ lack of strict parameters for business practices, poor compliance with laws, and other gaps to launder funds.

Highlighting a recently launched app, Mr Bawa said, “Just last year in July, the EFCC launched an app called ‘The Eagle Eye’ which has eased the processes of reporting economic and financial crimes and also exposed the flow of illicit funds in the real estate sector.”

He added, “This indeed has provided useful intelligence and goes to show the level of commitment that EFCC has in the real estate sector.”