Banks and their customers lost a combined N134.48bn to fraud between 2020 and 2025 amid a significant expansion in digital payments and financial technology adoption across the country, according to data contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 document.
The document, obtained by The PUNCH from the apex bank’s website, showed that attempted fraud across the banking and payments ecosystem amounted to N187.79bn during the six-year period, while actual losses stood at N134.48bn.
The losses were recorded across multiple payment channels, including over-the-counter transactions, Automated Teller Machines, cheques, e-commerce platforms, Internet banking, mobile banking, Point of Sale terminals, web channels and other electronic payment platforms, highlighting the growing challenge of safeguarding Nigeria’s increasingly digital financial system.
An analysis of the data showed that fraud losses increased steadily from N11.61bn in 2020 to N12.77bn in 2021 and N14.32bn in 2022. The figure rose further to N17.67bn in 2023 before surging dramatically to N52.26bn in 2024, the highest annual loss recorded within the six-year period.
The 2024 figure alone accounted for nearly 39 per cent of the total N134.48bn lost between 2020 and 2025, showing the scale of the fraud challenge faced by banks, payment service providers and customers.
Similarly, attempted fraud climbed from N13.26bn in 2020 to N14.48bn in 2021, N16.41bn in 2022 and N19.72bn in 2023 before jumping to N86.36bn in 2024. However, both attempted fraud and actual losses declined in 2025, falling to N37.57bn and N25.85bn, respectively. The report attributed the sharp rise in fraud losses in 2024 largely to a major internal fraud case involving N30bn.
According to the document, “Fraud amounts in Internet Banking, Mobile, and POS channels declined, yet overall losses rose by 196 per cent, primarily due to a major internal case involving N30bn. Web fraud incidents also increased by 169 per cent.”
