June 29 (THEWILL) — The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has indicated that between 2020 and 2025, banks and their customers experienced a combined loss of N134.48 billion due to fraud, which highlights the increasing security concerns within the nation’s rapidly advancing digital payments framework.
Information from the recent CBN report, Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028, revealed that the total attempted fraud over this six-year timeframe was N187.79 billion, while the actual losses were recorded at N134.48 billion.
These losses affected a range of payment channels, including over-the-counter transactions, Automated Teller Machines, cheques, e-commerce platforms, Internet banking, mobile banking, Point of Sale terminals, web channels, and other electronic payment methods.
An analysis of the figures revealed a steady rise in fraud losses from N11.61bn in 2020 to N12.77bn in 2021 and N14.32bn in 2022. Losses climbed further to N17.67bn in 2023 before surging to a record N52.26bn in 2024, accounting for nearly 39 percent of the total amount lost during the six-year period.
Attempted fraud also followed an upward trend, increasing from N13.26bn in 2020 to N14.48bn in 2021, N16.41bn in 2022 and N19.72bn in 2023 before jumping sharply to N86.36bn in 2024.
However, both attempted fraud and actual losses declined in 2025 to N37.57bn and N25.85bn respectively.
The apex bank attributed the sharp rise in losses recorded in 2024 largely to a major internal fraud case involving N30 billion. According to the report, fraud volumes across Internet banking, mobile and POS channels declined, but overall losses rose by 196 per cent due to the single large-scale incident. Web fraud incidents also increased by 169 percent during the year.
The findings come amid rapid growth in electronic payments, fintech adoption and digital financial services across Nigeria, developments the CBN says require stronger cybersecurity frameworks, consumer protection measures and more robust fraud-monitoring systems.
Nigeria has over 146 million active individual bank customers with over 310 million active bank accounts. To regulate this, there are over 66.2 million unique BVNs (Bank Verification Numbers) linking individual customers to their accounts.
The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) tracks all these figures using several key electronic payment channels. The latest key figures include electronic payment transactions in Nigeria which surged to a record-breaking N1.07 quadrillion recently.
Additionally, Point of Sale (PoS) transactions alone jumped by 79 percent to N18.78 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, while Q1 electronic transactions generally continue to hit N284.99 trillion in recent periods.
Losing over N134 billion in fraud through fintech operations severely degrades investor confidence, triggers stricter regulatory interventions like transaction limits, and severely erodes public trust in digital banking. It forces financial institutions to absorb huge write-offs while driving up operational costs to build better cybersecurity frameworks.
Also, continuous fraud incidents destroy customer confidence in the safety of digital wallets and fintech platforms, causing a potential regression toward cash-based transactions and a reduction in overall financial inclusion.
High-profile fraud and cybercrime cases tarnish the reputation of the country’s digital economy on the global stage, making international investors and tech partners highly reluctant to fund local fintech startups.
To mitigate future exposures, financial institutions and fintechs are forced to heavily invest in enterprise fraud monitoring, multi-factor authentication, and artificial intelligence-driven risk detection, diverting capital that could otherwise go to loans and product innovation.
We agree with CBN that the unpleasant development requires stronger cybersecurity frameworks, consumer protection measures and more robust fraud-monitoring systems.
Curbing expanding fintech-driven bank frauds relies on AI-powered behavioral biometrics, enforcing continuous Know-Your-Customer (KYC) verification, mandating “positive frictions” like payment delays, building centralized threat intelligence networks, and utilizing end-to-end encryption to secure open APIs.
