Terrorism, A Global Phenomenon Threat to Banking and Tourism Sectors in Nigeria: A True Story.

Abstract

The research study examined terrorism, a global phenomenon threat to banking and tourism sectors in Nigeria: A true story. The global attention began its focus on embassy bombing, aircraft hijacking and 9/11 terrorists-attack in 2001, which have now moved to the shore of Africa, particularly in North- East Nigeria, which may be assumed as ‘Third World War’. The banking and tourism sub-sectors’ operations have been completely distorted due to the operations of the terrorist, ‘Boko-Haram’. Forcing banks to close down operations indefinitely and tourists’ have been discouraged to visit Nigeria, thereby reducing the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), with a strong decline in national economic growth. Data were collected through questionnaire administered on the responses of the respondents. A simple linear regression technique (Ordinary Least Square) was adopted to address the significant relationship among the responses of the respondents gathered though the research instrument. The paper concluded that with high degree of information and human capital technology, the channeling of funds were made with ease and speed, which could be traced to terrorist accounts (capital flow) for the purpose of financing their deadly activities; which served as a threat to national economic growth. The paper advised government ministries, agencies and departments (MDAs), operators, regulators, and other policymakers etc., to enhance intelligence so as to assist financial institutions to “red flag” potential terrorist transactions for checking against the financial institutions’ records; and financial institutions (banks) should always expect feedback on the usefulness of the suspicious transactions reports they provide either to domestic or international financial intelligence units.