The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) have advised financial institutions to strengthen collaboration to sustain recent declines in electronic fraud and support deeper digital inclusion.

They made the call on Wednesday at the 2026 Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) Technical Kick-Off Session in Lagos, attended by regulators, banks, payment service providers, identity agencies and law enforcement agencies.

Delivering the keynote address, deputy governor, Financial System Stability, CBN, Philip Ikeazor, said sustained cooperation under NeFF since 2011 had strengthened the resilience and security of Nigeria’s payments system.

Mr Ikeazor, represented by Ibrahim Hassan, director, Development Finance Institutions Supervision Department, said the sustained cooperation had reduced fraud losses in spite of rapid growth in digital transactions.

He highlighted industry achievements, including migration to EMV chip-and-PIN cards, two-factor authentication, enhanced transaction monitoring, centralised fraud reporting, and the integration of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) with the National Identification Number (NIN).

“Emerging threats such as social engineering, SIM-swap abuse, insider compromise and Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams require faster, integrated and proactive responses.

“The industry is committed to reducing fraud response times to under 30 minutes and to adopt enterprise-wide fraud management systems leveraging real-time analytics and shared intelligence,” the deputy governor said.

Taking another keynote presentation, NIBSS managing director/CEO, Premier Oiwoh, said electronic payment fraud losses declined significantly in 2025 due to coordinated actions by regulators, security agencies and industry operators.

Ms Oiwoh said: “The reduction in electronic payment fraud losses was recorded despite rising transaction volumes.

“We can only attribute this improvement to interventions by CBN, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), security agencies and enhanced monitoring across the payments ecosystem.”

He noted, however, that internet banking and e-commerce remained the main fraud channels, with social engineering and insider-assisted fraud emerging as dominant trends.

The NIBSS boss said the gains recorded could only be sustained through stricter controls, stronger regulatory compliance and industry-wide collaboration.

He stressed zero tolerance for non-reporting of fraud, warning that weak reporting, poor identity verification and abuse of transaction limits continued to expose the system to risks.

Ms Oiwoh stressed that the effective Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Know-Your-Device (KYD) processes, supported by real-time validation of NIN and BVN, were critical to curbing fraud.

He added that stronger reporting requirements, joint industry action and a central “Persons of Interest” database—covering over 13,000 individuals—had improved detection and prevention.

He disclosed that the NIBSS was working with the CBN and other stakeholders on advanced AI-driven monitoring tools and a new national payment infrastructure to further strengthen fraud prevention and deepen financial inclusion.

Rakiya Yusuf, director, Payments System Supervision Department, CBN, and chairman, Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), urged continued coordinated action by regulators, banks, payment providers and law enforcement agencies.

Ms Yusuf highlighted gains such as EMV chip-and-PIN migration, two-factor authentication, and improved identity management.

She warned that emerging threats required standardised frameworks, faster response times, and proactive use of ISO 20022 and analytics to sustain fraud reduction.

Ms Yusuf expressed confidence that the forum’s deliberations would reinforce the foundations of a safer, more trusted digital financial ecosystem in Nigeria.

The 2026 NeFF Technical Kickoff Session had the theme: “Shrinking Fraud Losses With ISO 20022 and Identity Management.” 

(NAN)