The African Union has accredited Nigeria’s National Counter Terrorism Centre as a Regional Centre of Excellence in Counter Terrorism, giving the Abuja-based body a formal role supporting member states across West Africa and the Sahel.
Announcement in Abuja
Idriss Mounir Lallali, acting head of the AU Counter-Terrorism Centre, announced the decision Tuesday in Abuja as the African Lessons Learned Forum closed. He spoke on behalf of the AU Commission’s commissioner for peace and security.
The AU reached its decision after reviewing the centre’s institutional capacity, governance, training programs, analytical work, coordination arrangements and record on human rights and the rule of law, according to the NCTC. Formal notice will go to the Nigerian government by Note Verbale from the AU Commission’s peace and security department.
What the designation means
A statement from Michael Abu, head of strategic communication at the NCTC in the Office of the National Security Adviser, said the designation gives the centre an expanded regional role in specialized training, joint threat analysis, research, technical assistance, lessons-learned exchanges and wider counter-terrorism cooperation.
He called it a significant milestone in Nigeria’s contribution to collective African security, formally positioning the centre to support AU member states through counter-terrorism cooperation and institutional capacity development.
Road to accreditation
The process began with a memorandum of understanding between the AU and the NCTC in September 2025. It fulfills a vision President Bola Tinubu set out at the High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting in Abuja in April 2024, later captured in the Abuja Declaration.
At that meeting, Tinubu called for a fully operational regional counter-terrorism centre to serve as a hub for intelligence sharing, operational coordination and capacity building. He also urged African states to strengthen existing structures, including the Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit in Abuja, the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism in Algiers and the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa in Addis Ababa.
Digital threats in focus
The announcement follows an Oct. 13 regional training program in Abuja, run by the NCTC and the AU Counter-Terrorism Centre, on detecting and disrupting terrorists’ exploitation of information and communication technologies and emerging technologies.
Lallali said groups including the Islamic State West Africa Province, Boko Haram and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin are increasingly exploiting digital platforms, and called for stronger partnerships with social media companies, telecommunications operators and financial service providers, which own much of the infrastructure those groups use.
In remarks delivered on his behalf at the training, National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu said that no institution, country or sector can defeat terrorism alone. Nigeria was working with the AU to secure the accreditation, he said.
The reports did not say what resources or staffing the designation would bring, or when regional training would begin.
