By Eshioromeh Sebastian
The Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that banks and their customers lost a staggering N134.48 billion to fraudulent activities between 2020 and 2025, even as the country’s payments system underwent a dramatic digital transformation.
According to the apex bank’s Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 document, fraudsters attempted to steal N187.79 billion over the six-year period, successfully making away with over 71 per cent of that amount across multiple channels including ATMs, mobile banking, POS terminals, Internet banking and e-commerce platforms.
The figures paint a troubling picture of an industry racing to keep pace with innovation while battling increasingly sophisticated criminal networks.
Year-on-year data shows losses climbing steadily from N11.61 billion in 2020 to N12.77 billion in 2021 and N14.32 billion in 2022.
The upward trend continued into 2023 with N17.67 billion lost before the dam burst in 2024 when losses skyrocketed to N52.26 billion – a figure that alone accounts for nearly 39 per cent of the total losses recorded across the entire six-year period.
The 2024 spike was so dramatic that attempted fraud cases jumped from N19.72 billion in 2023 to N86.36 billion the following year. Industry watchers were left stunned by the scale of the surge.
The N30bn Elephant in the Room
However, the CBN report offers a crucial caveat that provides some context to the alarming numbers. The apex bank attributed the sharp rise in 2024 losses primarily to a single major internal fraud case involving a staggering N30 billion.
Without that isolated incident, the overall loss figures would have told a markedly different story. The revelation underscores how a single institutional failure can skew industry-wide data and mask improvements in other areas.
The report noted that fraud amounts in Internet Banking, Mobile, and POS channels actually declined in 2024, yet overall losses rose by 196 per cent due entirely to that one internal case. Web fraud incidents also increased by 169 per cent during the same period.
The CBN document provides a forensic breakdown of how fraud patterns have evolved across different payment platforms over the years.
In 2021, while web-based fraud declined by 43 per cent, losses still rose due to a staggering 276 per cent surge in POS fraud incidents.
The following year saw ATM fraud spike by over 2,000 per cent despite improvements in mobile and web channels, with major corporate account breaches driving the increase.
By 2023, the threat landscape had shifted once again. E-commerce fraud exploded by an eye-watering 1,961 per cent, pushing overall losses up by 23 per cent and signalling that criminals were chasing the money wherever consumers were spending.
A Turnaround in 2025
Despite the grim statistics, the report offers a glimmer of hope. Electronic payment fraud declined by 51 per cent in 2025, which the CBN attributed to stricter regulations, enhanced industry cooperation and improved monitoring systems.
The decline suggests that coordinated efforts between regulators, financial institutions and technology providers are beginning to yield results. Attempted fraud also fell to N37.57 billion in 2025, with actual losses dropping to N25.85 billion.
The Digital Dilemma
The revelations come as Nigeria experiences an unprecedented shift toward electronic payments. Instant transfers, mobile banking apps, fintech platforms and digital wallets have become central to daily commercial activities for millions of Nigerians.
In the foreword to the Payments System Vision 2028 document, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso described Nigeria’s payments ecosystem as one of the most dynamic and innovative in the world.
He acknowledged that while digitisation has improved financial inclusion and lowered transaction costs, it has also introduced new risks that demand stronger cybersecurity measures and consumer protection mechanisms.
What Lies Ahead
Under the new PSV 2028 framework, the CBN has committed to prioritising security, trust, innovation, interoperability and inclusion as guiding principles.
The regulator plans to strengthen oversight, improve cyber resilience and deploy emerging technologies to combat increasingly sophisticated fraud threats.
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