Nigeria’s financial sector fraud surged by 496.96 per cent from 2019 to 2023 amid the rise of electronic payment.

Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System disclosed this in its recent ‘Annual Fraud Landscape’ report.

The report said Nigeria’s Bank customers lost N59.33 billion between 2019 and 2023, with losses increasing from N2.96 billion in 2019 to N17.67 billion in 2023.

“The amount lost to fraud has increased over the past five years along with the growth of financial transactions in the digital payments sector.

“The Mobile channel was statistically the most profitable channel for fraudsters in 2023 with a Fraud Interest Index of 34 per cent. It is followed by Internet Banking and POS with 33.99 per cent and 26.37 per cent, respectively”, NIBSS stated.

The development comes amid the 463 percent surge in electronic transactions, which will reach N611.06 trillion in 2023 and N108.42 trillion in 2019.

In the same period, mobile subscriptions have grown by 21.68 per cent, from 184.43 million as of the end of December 2019 to 224.41 million as of 2023.

DAILY POST reports that electronic payments hit N234 in the first quarter of 2024.