JamzNG Latest News, Gist, Entertainment in Nigeria
By Ayo Kehinde
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, banks and their customers collectively lost ₦134.48 billion to fraud between 2020 and 2025, underscoring growing security challenges within Nigeria’s rapidly expanding digital payments ecosystem.
Data contained in the CBN’s Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 showed that fraud attempts during the six-year period amounted to ₦187.79 billion, while actual losses amounted to ₦134.48 billion.
The losses affect multiple payment channels, including over-the-counter transactions, ATMs, checks, e-commerce platforms, internet banking, mobile banking, point-of-sale terminals, web channels and other electronic payment platforms.
An analysis of the data revealed a steady increase in fraud losses from ₦11.61 billion in 2020 to ₦12.77 billion in 2021 and ₦14.32 billion in 2022.
Losses rose further to ₦17.67 billion in 2023 before reaching a record ₦52.26 billion in 2024, representing almost 39% of the total amount lost during the six-year period.
Fraud attempts also followed an upward trend, rising from ₦13.26 billion in 2020 to ₦14.48 billion in 2021, ₦16.41 billion in 2022 and ₦19.72 billion in 2023 before jumping sharply to ₦86.36 billion in 2024. However, both fraud attempts and actual losses decreased in 2025. to ₦37.57 billion and ₦25.85 billion, respectively.
The apex bank attributed the sharp increase in losses recorded in 2024 largely to a major case of internal fraud totaling ₦30 billion.
According to the report, fraud volumes across Internet banking, mobile and POS channels decreased, but overall losses increased by 196% due to a single large-scale incident. Web fraud incidents also increased by 169% during the year.
The CBN noted that the trend highlighted how a major fraud event could significantly distort industry-wide loss data, despite improvements in several digital payment channels.
Despite the persistent threat, the regulator said losses due to fraud fell by 51% in 2025, reflecting the impact of tougher regulations, stronger industry collaboration, improved monitoring systems and improved fraud prevention measures across the financial sector.
The findings come amid the rapid growth of electronic payments, fintech adoption and digital financial services across Nigeria, developments which the CBN says require stronger cybersecurity frameworks, consumer protection measures and more robust fraud monitoring systems.
