CBN partners E-PPAN to tackle e-fraud in Nigeria

The Chief Executive Officer, Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN), Mrs. Regha Onajite, said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other key stakeholders in the payment sector have started tackling cases of electronic fraud (efraud) in the country, with the hope of finding a lasting solution.

Onajile, who spoke in preparation for the fraud conference, stressed that the CBN had vowed to check the over N4 billion being lost to cases of e-frauds annually.

She said that with over N30tn transactions carried out on different e-payment channels by businesses and individuals in the country, “the CBN and other stakeholders have expressed worry over cases of e-fraud, which they said had been discouraging financial inclusion.”

Onajite, therefore, said that the CBN and financial stakeholders in the country would converge on Lagos at the annual Payment Systems and Fraud Conference to find a final solution to electronic fraud (e-fraud) in the country.

“This conference will bring together senior level officers of the fintech sector, banking, regulatory bodies and public officers. Our core focus in this years’ edition is to tackle fraud in a proactive and top-down approach that involves people, process and technology.

“This will help create effective combat against the activities of the e-payment fraudsters in Nigeria,” the E-PPAN CEO said.

Explaining specific objectives of the conference, she said it would address the challenges posed by people’s laxity in divulging and compromising organisation information system to fraudsters.

“It will also reappraise, reconnect and tackle the processes that compromise the entire system of e-payment hemisphere in Nigeria, and fashion out how organisations can invest in and deploy the right technologies to enable the industry to be a step ahead of these criminals,” she said.

Onajite added that E-PPAN partners at this year’s event, apart from the CBN, included the Nigerian Electronic Fraud Forum, Committee of Banking Heads, Committee of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria, Information Security Society of Nigeria and the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria.

“The conference has been designed to be a veritable rallying ground for the financial industry to deliberate on payment systems and fraud knowledge in West Africa,” she said.