Financial Sector’s Loss To Fraud Rises By 23% To N17.67bn

The country’s financial sector lost N17.67 billion to fraud in 2023, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has said.

The agency, which disclosed this in its Annual Fraud Landscape (January to December 2023) report posted on its website yesterday said that the fraud count decreased by six per cent to 95,620, while actual loss from fraud increased by 23 per cent in 2023 when compared to 2022.

The report said: “The amount lost to fraud has increased over the past five years along with the growth of financial transactions in the digital payments sector.

Annual fraud count has increased by 112 percent from 44,947 in 2019 to 95,620 in 2023, while the amount lost to fraud has grown by 496 per cent from N2.9 billion to N17.67 billion within the same time.

The ratio of total reported fraud value to the total value of transactions recorded over the last five years shows an increase between 2019 and 2023 from 0.0019 per cent to 0.0022 per cent.”

It further stated: “The highest fraud count for 2023 was recorded in the month of May with 11,716 records followed by February with 9,492.

March 2023 witnessed the highest fraud count of 12,939 as compared to 2023 May, which recorded the highest count of 11,716 resulting in a nine per cent decrease. The month of October recorded the highest actual loss value totaling approximately N3.7 billion.

This is followed by Jan with N2.7 billion as reported.” According to the report, the Mobile, Web, and Point Of Sale (POS) channels were the most exploited payment channels by fraudsters in 2023.

Specifically, it stated: “The count of Web fraud decreased by 38 per cent and ATM fraud recorded a 64 per cent reduction from 2022 to 2023.

Fraud loss via Internet Banking increased by 325 per cent between 2022 and 2023. This is largely due to a N2.4 billion internal fraud on corporate accounts reported by a DMB.”

“In 2023, a significant amount of fraud proceeds were utilised via withdrawal with 69,067 in fraud count. Also, the fraud loss value increased by 41 per cent from N9.6 billion in 2022 compared to N13.6 billion in 2023.

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