The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) has raised the alarm that Nigerian banks are “increasingly becoming fraudulent” with bankers collaborating with criminals to perpetrate fraud.

The commission’s Director, Internal Audit, Idowu Apejoye, who represented Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Ola Olukoyede, spoke at the annual conference of the Association of Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria on Monday.

He said, “In Nigeria particularly, the banking sector is increasingly becoming a cesspool of fraudulent activities and this is raising considerable challenges and concerns to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.” 

The anti-graft agency czar explained that banking fraud in Nigeria are in two aspects, one involving bankers within the system and the other involving bankers collaborating with criminals to carry out fraudulent activities. 

“Banking fraud in Nigeria is both inside and outside related” Mr Olukoyede said. “The inside related fraud comprises outright selling of customers’ deposits, authorising loan facilities, forgery and several other kinds of unhealthy and criminal practices.”

He added, “The outsider related ones include the hacking, ATM fraud, conspiracy among others and then the absurd one is when both collaborate, that is collaborating among the bankers and then the outsider.” 

Mr Olukoyede noted that the banking sector was one of the most important employers of labour and driver of development through its multifarious networks, adding that “every effort should be made to tackle fraudulent practices in the sector.”