The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has urged banks and other financial institutions to take prompt action in addressing emerging electronic fraud threats to safeguard Nigeria’s expanding digital payments ecosystem.
The call was made on Wednesday at the 2026 Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) Technical Kick-Off Session in Lagos, attended by regulators, banks, payment service providers, identity agencies and law enforcement bodies.
Financial fraud is a major challenge in the sector as the CBN has continued to raise awareness across the country.
What the CBN is saying
Delivering the keynote address, Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, CBN, Mr Philip Ikeazor, said emerging fraud patterns were becoming more complex and required industry-wide coordination.
Ikeazor, represented by Mr Ibrahim Hassan, Director of the Development Finance Institutions Supervision Department, stated that threats such as social engineering, SIM-swap abuse, insider compromise, and Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams were placing increasing pressure on Nigeria’s payment systems.
“Emerging threats such as social engineering, SIM-swap abuse, insider compromise and Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams require faster, integrated and proactive responses.
“The industry is committed to reducing fraud response times to under 30 minutes and to adopt enterprise-wide fraud management systems leveraging real-time analytics and shared intelligence,” he said.
Industry collaboration driving fraud reduction
Ikeazor noted that sustained cooperation under the NeFF framework since 2011 had significantly strengthened the resilience and security of Nigeria’s payments system.
According to him, fraud losses have declined despite the rapid growth in digital transactions, due largely to coordinated actions across the industry.
He highlighted achievements such as the migration to EMV chip-and-PIN cards, deployment of two-factor authentication, improved transaction monitoring, centralised fraud reporting, and the integration of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) with the National Identification Number (NIN).
NIBSS confirms decline in fraud losses
In another keynote presentation, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIBSS, Mr Premier Oiwoh, confirmed that electronic payment fraud losses fell significantly in 2025.
He said the decline was recorded despite increasing transaction volumes across digital channels.
“The reduction in electronic payment fraud losses was recorded despite rising transaction volumes.
“We can only attribute this improvement to interventions by CBN, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), security agencies and enhanced monitoring across the payments ecosystem,” Oiwoh said.
Internet banking, e-commerce still vulnerable
Oiwoh noted that internet banking and e-commerce platforms remain the most vulnerable fraud channels, with social engineering and insider-assisted fraud emerging as dominant trends.
He stressed that sustaining recent gains would require stricter controls, stronger regulatory compliance and deeper industry collaboration.
The NIBSS boss warned against non-reporting of fraud incidents, saying weak reporting practices, poor identity verification and abuse of transaction limits continued to expose the system to risks.
He emphasised the importance of effective Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Know-Your-Device (KYD) processes, supported by real-time validation of NIN and BVN.
According to him, improved reporting requirements, joint industry action and a central “Persons of Interest” database, covering more than 13,000 individuals, have enhanced fraud detection and prevention.
AI, new infrastructure to boost fraud prevention
Oiwoh disclosed that NIBSS is working with the CBN and other stakeholders to deploy advanced AI-driven monitoring tools and develop a new national payment infrastructure aimed at strengthening fraud prevention while deepening financial inclusion.
The 2026 NeFF Technical Kick-Off Session was held under the theme: “Shrinking Fraud Losses With ISO 20022 and Identity Management.”
What you should know
In July 2025, the CBN raised the alarm over a significant rise in financial fraud cases in the country, revealing that fraud surged by 45% within one year, with 70% of the resulting losses traced to digital channels, particularly unregulated virtual asset platforms.
The apex bank said findings from its Financial Stability Report 2024 reveal a sharp increase in fraud.
The report revealed that over 30 Ponzi-style investment schemes exploiting digital currency narratives have been flagged by the SEC and other agencies.
