CBN head office in Abuja

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has projected that electronic fraud loses in the country’s banking system would reach N6.1 trillion by 2021.

CBN Director of Consumer Protection, Mr Sunday Salam-Alada, said this at a workshop for Business Editors and Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) in Benin City.

The workshop was organised by Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

According to him, the volume and value of e-transactions are projected to continue to increase nationally and globally due to broader ecosystem scope, evolution of channels, modes payment and evolving technologies.

The director also said that the CBN, through its Consumer Protection Department (CPD) had resolved over 13,715 complaints.

This, he said, had resulted in the refund of about N72.2 billion to customers by the commercial banks, based on 25,043 cases of fraud in 2017.

He said the amount represented a 28 per cent increase if compared to 19,531 cases recorded in 2016.
Salam-Alada said there was a 24 per cent reduction in actual fraud loss value in 2017 with N1.63 billion as against the 2016 figures.

According to him, statistics provided by the CBN shows there is a significant increase in the year-on-year volume and value of transactions across all payment channels in Nigeria.

Consequently, 1.4 billion transactions with a value of N97.4 trillion were processed in 2017 as against 869 million transactions with a value of N69.1 trillion recorded in 2016.

He said the increase of 59.7 per cent and 40.9 per cent were recorded respectively in the volume and value of transactions in 2017.

The director hinted that the CBN would soon issue a framework on consumer protection.

Salam-Alada said CPD had conducted a mapping exercise of financial literacy activities, organised biannual consumer protection compliance exams and reviewed guide to banks’ charges, among others.