The Central
Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday said that Deposit Money Banks in the country lost a
total of N2.19bn to fraudsters in the 2016 fiscal period.
The figure
was contained in the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum Annual Report, which was
unveiled by the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, during the NEFF
stakeholders’ workshop on cybercrime.
The
conference with the theme: ‘Tackling enforcement challenges under the
Cybercrime Act’, was held to address some of the impediments to the enforcement
of the Act.
The report,
which was made available to our correspondent, stated that 19,531 fraud cases
were reported for the DMBs in 2016 as against 10,743 in 2015.
It stated
that although there was an 82 per cent increase in reported fraud cases as
compared to 2015; the banking sector witnessed marginal reduction in the value
of attempted frauds and actual losses.
For
instance, the report stated that attempted frauds’ value dropped from N4.37bn
in 2015 to N4.36bn in 2016, while actual loss value declined from N2.25bn to
N2.19bn.
A breakdown
of the actual amount lost showed that across the counter transactions accounted
for the highest with a total value of N511.07m.
This was
followed by Automated Teller Machine transactions, with N464.5m; Internet
banking, N320.66m; Point-of-Sale transactions, N243.32m; and mobile banking
transactions, N235.17m.
Losses from
e-commerce transactions were put at N132.25m; web transactions, N83.77m;
cheques, N4.55m; kiosks, N10.19m; and others, N190.97m.
The report
read in part, “Based on trend and human perception, it is believed that fraud
rates increase towards the end of the year due to festivities observed during
this period and the need for people to get more money.
“But the
truth is fraud can occur anytime, hence the need for us to always gear up our
preventive and detective strategies.”
Speaking on
the theme of the workshop, Emefiele, who was represented by the Deputy
Governor, Operations, CBN, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, said the challenges faced while
enforcing the Cybercrime Act, 2015 had made it imperative for a review of the
law.
He stated,
“The protection of information infrastructure utilised in the delivery of
financial services is considered critical all over the world, and it was
because of the importance of securing infrastructure such as that of the
financial sector, and protecting the underlying services from cyberattacks that
the Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act was enacted in 2015.
Emefiele
said, “It is now about two years into the commencement of the Act, and so it is
not too early to conduct a holistic review of its implementation.”
“Thus, your
deliverables at this workshop should include a careful examination of the
extent to which the obligations placed by the Act are fulfilled, and the
general assessment of any challenges experienced in compliance with the
provisions of the Act.
“It is our
natural expectation that following such careful and interesting review, this
workshop would have very little difficulty in proffering the much needed
solutions and making practical recommendations for the effective implementation
of the Act from hereon.”
According to Punch, The governor
stated that while the apex bank and banking operators had made efforts to
reduce the incidents of fraud and ensure consumer confidence in the payment
system, the Cybercrime Act, if effectively enforced, would serve as a deterrent
and constant reminder to those who might wish to engage in illicit activities
targeting the financial technology infrastructure.
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