The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said the value of actual loss to fraud on electronic banking channels declined in 2015 in spite of rise in e-payment transactions.
The CBN Director, Banking and Payment System, Mr Dipo Fatokun, said the value of attempted fraud in 2015 dropped to N4.37 billion from the N7.75 billion recorded in 2014.
Fatokun, at a seminar for finance journalists and editors on Tuesday in Ibadan, Oyo State said the volume of electronic transactions rose by 43.4 per cent to 162.59 million from 113.42 million in 2014.
According to him, the value rose to N48.93 trillion from N43.85 trillion in 2014, representing an increase of 11.6 per cent.
Fatokun said the volume of attempted fraud rose by 635 per cent in 2015, the attempted value and actual loss had dropped by 43.6 per cent and 63.7 per cents respectively.
He added that the value of actual loss to fraud dropped to N2.25 billion in 2015 as against N6.21 billion lost in 2014.
The director attributed the decline in fraud to the introduction of Bank Verification Number (BVN), the beefed up security features on the electronic payment channels, among others.
On the e-dividend mandate, he noted that the apex bank was aware that some banks continued to charge customers for the mandate.
Fatokun added that was contrary to the agreement with banks that the mandate would be free till the end of the first quarter of the year.
He, therefore, urged Nigerian investors to upload their e-dividend mandate before the March 31 grace period after which it would attract a fee of N100.
The director noted that the CBN would meet with banks in the week to ensure that they complied with the directive.
Fatokun said that four agents would be licensed by the apex bank before the end of the first quarter to further encourage the spread of agent banking in the country.
Fatokun said the value of transactions on the Mobile Money Operation (MMO) had been encouraging, adding it had been on the increase.
He added, ”The average value of transactions the MMOs carried out is in the neighborhood of over N3 billion per month, with about 100,000 agents scattered all over the country.
”The figure for January 2016 was over N4 billion.”
