Fraud. A common word, and a global phenomenon that seeks to take advantage of vulnerabilities in various systems in order to criminally achieve a financial gain. Nigerians have long been perceived to have perpetrated some of the most cunning and inventive scams, so much so that our reputation around the globe has been negatively impacted by this trend.

While this reputation predates the advent of electronic payments in Nigeria, it has continuously evolved to the extent that financial institutions and service providers alike are constantly on the lookout for odd behaviour to ensure that any potentially fraudulent behaviour is nipped in the bud.

It is no secret that Nigeria has some of the most advanced electronic payment capabilities in the world. Ironically, this stems from our own need to ensure transparency in payments, a feat that can only be achieved when there can be quick or near-instant feedback between the participating institutions.

However, the increase in transaction processing speed and available channels comes with an unavoidable side effect – more vectors for fraudulent transactions. This has been observed in many countries across the world. When the faster payments network was implemented in the United Kingdom, financial institutions saw as much as 300% increase in fraud. As adoption of Zelle was growing in the U.S. some institutions reported a 90% fraud rate on transactions

NIBSS Insight Fraud