The Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) is advocating for Fresh measures and Increased
Collaboration to counter the Escalating trend of Electronic Fraud.
Consequently, the Forum, led by the Central Bank of Nigeria, assembled its third-quarter general meeting in Lagos with a focus on “New Strategies for Combating e-Fraud in a Cashless Environment.”
During the meeting, Premier Oiwoh, Managing Director of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), highlighted the Alarming rise of e-fraud in the Country, particularly through Betting platforms.
Oiwoh, represented by NIBBS’s Chief Risk Officer, Temidayo Adekanye, stated, “For Q1 2023, the total Fraud report through the Industry Forum Portal was at N5.1 billion.
For Fraud trends over the last five years, in 2019, we’re looking at about N3 billion and currently, in 2023, we are looking at about N9.5 billion to date.
Fraud losses have increased dramatically over the last five years.”
He continued, “What we see most is the fact that the primary Channels are the Betting platforms.
So once the Money hits the Betting platform or a Wallet account or in some cases POS agents once it’s cashed out, it is a black hole.
There is no way you can recover that money.
We’re talking about potentially five percent recovery rates across the Industry.”
Musa Jimoh, NeFF Chairman and Director of Payment Systems Management at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stressed the Importance of Collaborative efforts to combat Cybercriminals.
He mentioned, “The objective is to have Zero Fraud but you know, this is a gradual process because as you’re building Techniques, they’re also exploiting other areas.”
Jimoh further emphasized the role of Education in reducing Fraud Incidents, Stating, “But I know that with the kind of enlightenment and the push by the Bankers’ Committee, and other Stakeholders a lot of Nigerians will be well Educated to know that they have to keep all the Accounting Details very secret and therefore we anticipate that the Incidence of Fraud will come down almost to Zero.”
