The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) have urged financial institutions to deepen collaboration in order to sustain the recent decline in electronic fraud and accelerate digital financial inclusion.
The call was made on Wednesday at the 2026 Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) Technical Kick-Off Session held in Lagos, which brought together regulators, banks, payment service providers, identity management agencies and law enforcement bodies.
Delivering the keynote address, the Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, CBN, Mr Philip Ikeazor, said sustained collaboration under the NeFF platform since 2011 had significantly enhanced the resilience and security of Nigeria’s payments system.
Represented by the Director, Development Finance Institutions Supervision Department, Mr Ibrahim Hassan, Ikeazor noted that fraud losses had declined despite the rapid expansion of digital transactions nationwide.
He highlighted key industry milestones, including the migration to EMV chip-and-PIN cards, deployment of two-factor authentication, enhanced transaction monitoring, centralised fraud reporting, and the integration of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) with the National Identification Number (NIN).
According to him, emerging risks such as social engineering, SIM-swap fraud, insider compromise and Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams now demand faster, more integrated and proactive industry responses.
“The industry is committed to reducing fraud response times to under 30 minutes and deploying enterprise-wide fraud management systems that leverage real-time analytics and shared intelligence,” Ikeazor said.
In a separate keynote presentation, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NIBSS, Mr Premier Oiwoh, disclosed that electronic payment fraud losses declined significantly in 2025 as a result of coordinated efforts by regulators, security agencies and industry stakeholders.
“The reduction in fraud losses was achieved despite a continued rise in transaction volumes,” Oiwoh said, attributing the improvement to interventions by the CBN, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), security agencies, and strengthened monitoring across the payments ecosystem.
He noted, however, that internet banking and e-commerce remained the primary fraud channels, with social engineering and insider-assisted fraud emerging as dominant trends.
Oiwoh stressed that sustaining the gains would require stricter controls, stronger regulatory compliance and deeper industry-wide collaboration. He warned against non-reporting of fraud incidents, noting that weak reporting frameworks, inadequate identity verification and abuse of transaction limits continued to pose systemic risks.
He emphasised that effective Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Know-Your-Device (KYD) processes—supported by real-time validation of NIN and BVN—were critical to fraud prevention.
According to him, enhanced reporting requirements, coordinated industry action and a central “Persons of Interest” database covering over 13,000 individuals had improved fraud detection and prevention.
Oiwoh also disclosed that NIBSS was collaborating with the CBN and other stakeholders on advanced artificial intelligence-driven monitoring tools and a new national payment infrastructure to further strengthen fraud control and expand financial inclusion.
Also speaking, the Director of the Payments System Supervision Department, CBN, and Chairman of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), Dr Rakiya Yusuf, called for sustained coordinated action among regulators, banks, payment service providers and law enforcement agencies.
She highlighted progress made in EMV chip-and-PIN migration, two-factor authentication and improved identity management, but cautioned that evolving threats required standardised frameworks, faster response times and proactive deployment of ISO 20022 messaging standards and data analytics.
Yusuf expressed optimism that the forum’s deliberations would further strengthen the foundation for a safer, more secure and trusted digital financial ecosystem in Nigeria.
The 2026 NeFF Technical Kick-Off Session was held under the theme: “Shrinking Fraud Losses with ISO 20022 and Identity Management.”
