By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
About N5.571 billion has been estimated as the value of banking fraud cases in Nigeria in the last three years, a recent data released by the Nigerian Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF)via its annual report has shown.
According to the data, ATMs and mobile banking transactions accounted for channel through which majority of the fraud were perpetrated. But value of fraud perpetrated across counter has seen a decline over the last three years underscored by the increasing shift to online banking.
The value of fraud committed across the counter in 2015 is N732.85 million, dropping to N511.072 million and N259.022 million in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Meanwhile, fraud via ATM channels rose from N355.89 million in 2015 to N464.514 million in 2016, and increased further to N497.643 million in 2017.
Additionally, mobile payment fraud rose from N248.144 million in 2015 to N235.17 million in 2016, and N347.645 million in 2017.
The Director of Banking and Payment System at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Dipo Fatokun while speaking at the unveiling of the report in Lagos said efforts to curtail the menace are already in full gear, even as the apex banks looks to strengthen the existing rules and enact new regulations as a way of reducing the increasing rate of banking fraud in the country and ensuring safety of customers’ funds.
“It is sad to note that there has been a little increase in electronic fraud especially in recent times. It has therefore become necessary to review and strengthen the existing rules and enact new regulations to steer the problem,” he said.
He further stated that with USSD channels responsible for the upspring in electronic fraud in recent times, a framework is expected to guide the subsector and is to be implemented this year from October 1st.
“Many of you present would agree on the need for a framework on for USSD as a channel for electronic payment transaction and that was why the CBN early this year issued a framework to that effect because we noticed that USSD channel was primarily responsible for the upspring in electronic fraud in recent times.
“That framework should have been implanted from the first day of this month but we shifted the implementation date to October 1st because certain requirement on that framework could not be put in place so it is better done completely.We remained committed as a forum in ensuring that the Nigerian payment system is not only easy to use but also reliable and trustworthy,” he said.
