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Electronic deals in Nigeria hit N64tr in 2016,N2.19B lost to fraud

The Nigeria Central Switch (NCS), which permits the connections for such transactions from various e-payment channels, was reported to have garnered about N64 trillion, while a whopping N2.19 billion was lost to fraudsters.

Cybercrime

This information was disclosed by the forum on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 in Abuja during the inaugural stakeholders’ workshop on cybercrime organised by NeFF with the theme: “Tackling Challenges under the Cybercrime Act.”

The NeFF was constituted to check the rising incidence of fraud on accounts of e-payment channels in the financial sector. This was noted to be in line with global best practices which is aimed at increasing ease of financial payments through these e-payment platforms and increase customer satisfaction.

The Nigeria Central Switch (NCS), which permits the connections for such transactions from various e-payment channels, was reported to have garnered about N64 trillion, while a whopping N2.19 billion was lost to fraudsters.

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Speaking at the Workshop, the Deputy Governor, Operations of CBN and Chairman of NeFF, Mr Adebayo Adelabu said the Forum is currently upgrading the system to it make simpler and safer for users, but the fraudsters are also up in their game.

“The value of fraud reported in 2016 compared to previous years, attests to the fact that fraudsters do not grow weary. The more products and services that are rolled out without proper risk and impact analysis, the easier for the bad guys to perpetrate more fraud effortlessly.

“The determination and commitment of these unscrupulous elements cannot be underrated within the financial sector. The financial industry needs to ensure that more regulations and inter- industry collaboration are put in place to curb this trend,” he noted.

“The industry recorded about 82 per cent increase in the reported case when compared to 2015, and over 1200 per cent when compared to 2014. Despite the 82 per cent increase, in the reported fraud cases, with an estimated N2.19 billion loss to fraud, the industry was able to reduce fraud by 2.7 when compared to the 2015 figure.

He also noted the Forum has also achieved more in preventing the successful attempt at penetrating this crime by the fraudsters.

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“Comparing the attempted fraud against the actual loss, the industry was able to salvage 49.7 per cent of the total amount attempted by these fraudsters within the year.

“These figures informed us that there are attempts on yearly basis with different innovation tricks or modus operandi to take advantage of the system,” Mr Adelabu stated.

The Central Bank Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele also noted that the review of the Cybercrime Act has become imperative more ever before, due to the emergence of new trends in cyber attacks in the country.

“There is no gainsaying the fact that the importance of technology to all human endeavours in general and financial services industry in particular, cannot be over emphasised. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has revolutionised the way financial services are created, offered, and delivered. We have all witnessed how such developments in electronic payment such as the ATM, POS, Mobile Money, Internet Payment, etc. have continuously eroded the significance of physical locations for financial institutions.”

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