Banks in the country have agreed to reduce fraud response times to under 30 minutes, a move expected to significantly improve recovery outcomes and limit systemic risk, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This disclosure was made on Wednesday by Philip Ikeazor, deputy governor, Financial System Stability, at the 2026 Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) Technical Kick-Off Session held in Lagos.

Represented by Ibrahim Hassan, Ikeazor said fraud mitigation efforts within the banking industry have continued to evolve in response to increasingly sophisticated threat vectors. While legacy forms of fraud such as ATM card cloning have largely been neutralised, newer risks including online fraud, social engineering, SIM-swap abuse, insider compromise and authorised push payment (APP) scams have emerged as major challenges.

According to him, NeFF has played a pivotal role in coordinating timely and industry-wide responses to these emerging risks. These interventions include the introduction of mandatory two-factor authentication, issuance of industry advisories, sustained public awareness campaigns, the establishment of 24/7 bank fraud desks and, more recently, the development of a Standardised APP Scam Framework.

“Importantly, the industry has agreed to reduce fraud response times to under 30 minutes, a decisive step that materially improves recovery outcomes and limits systemic exposure,” Ikeazor said.

He noted that a major enabler of fraud reduction in Nigeria has been the country’s progress in identity management. The introduction of the Bank Verification Number (BVN), alongside its ongoing integration with the National Identification Number (NIN), has significantly constrained impersonation and synthetic identity fraud.

According to him, enhanced identity verification across banking channels, agent networks and high-risk digital platforms is steadily closing loopholes previously exploited by criminals. He added that this development reinforces the importance of identity infrastructure as a foundational control for payment system integrity, with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) remaining a key partner in strengthening fraud prevention efforts.

“Equally transformative is the industry’s migration to ISO 20022. Beyond compliance, ISO 20022 provides richer, structured transaction data that enhances traceability, analytics and early fraud detection,” Ikeazor said.

He explained that as banks, payment service providers and financial infrastructure operators complete implementation across real-time gross settlement (RTGS) and instant payment systems, data quality and transparency are expected to improve materially. This, he said, would enable faster investigations, better fraud pattern recognition and more effective cross-border cooperation.

“This alignment with global standards positions Nigeria to confront increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes with modern, data-driven tools,” he added.

Ikeazor further noted that over the past decade, Nigeria’s electronic payments ecosystem has recorded substantial progress in resilience, security and public confidence. Despite rapid expansion across ATM, POS, mobile and interbank payment channels, system uptime, operational stability and fraud controls have improved markedly.

He attributed this progress to early regulatory interventions, industry-wide adoption of EMV standards, stronger cybersecurity frameworks, enhanced consumer protection measures and sustained collaboration through NeFF. As a result, he said Nigeria’s payments system now compares favourably with global peers in cyber-fraud management, despite exponential growth in digital transaction volumes.

Looking ahead to 2026, Ikeazor warned that electronic fraud losses have risen sharply in recent years and must be decisively reversed. He stressed the need for the industry to commit to bold and measurable fraud-reduction targets, supported by clear strategic priorities. These include full exploitation of ISO 20022 data, universal and real-time identity verification, enhanced round-the-clock fraud monitoring and response, structured liability-sharing and consumer reimbursement frameworks, deeper engagement with payment service providers and telecoms operators, as well as rigorous performance measurement through transparent scorecards.

“What gets measured must be improved,” he said.

In her opening remarks, Rakiya O. Yusuf, director, Payments System Supervision Department and Chairman, Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), said that over the past decade, NeFF has provided a trusted platform for regulators and industry stakeholders to jointly strengthen the resilience, security and credibility of Nigeria’s payments system.

Yusuf said sustained collaboration among financial institutions, payment service providers, infrastructure operators, identity management agencies, law enforcement and other partners has delivered meaningful progress in fraud mitigation, even as electronic transactions have expanded rapidly under the cashless policy.

She said key milestones achieved include the migration to EMV chip-and-PIN cards, the introduction of two-factor authentication across electronic channels, enhanced consumer protection measures and the institutionalisation of industry-wide fraud information sharing.

According to her, these interventions led to measurable reductions in fraud losses in earlier years and helped preserve public confidence in digital payments during periods of rapid growth. More recently, she added, improvements in identity management, particularly the rollout of the BVN and its integration with the NIN, have significantly reduced impersonation and the use of false identities for fraud, closing long-standing gaps exploited by criminals across both banking and agent networks. (BusinessDay)

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