By Abiola Olawale
A significant increase in fraudulent activities within the banking sector in Nigeria resulted in a loss of N42.6 billion for Nigerian banks during the second quarter of this year, spanning from April to June.
This was contained in a report published by the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) in its Q2 2024 Fraud and Forgeries report.
According to the report, the loss recorded by Nigerian banks in Q2 2024 alone surpassed the total amount lost to fraud by the banks in the full year 2023, which stood at N9.4 billion.
Further breakdown of the report revealed that the loss recorded in Q2 2024 represents an 8,993% increase from the N468.4 million lost in Q1 2024.
Highlighting the fraud types, FITC revealed that ‘miscellaneous and other fraud’ types constituted the largest loss, representing 96.46% of the total amount lost, with a value of N41.14 billion.
This was followed by losses from fraudulent withdrawals and computer/web fraud, amounting to approximately N781.2 million and N400.7 million, respectively.
According to the FITC report, there was a staggering 1,784% increase in the total amount involved in fraud cases from Q1 to Q2 2024, with the sum escalating from N2.9 billion to approximately N56.3 billion in Q2.
During the second quarter of 2024, fraudulent activities were carried out through various channels, including ATMs, online platforms like web and mobile banking, bank branches, and point-of-sale (POS) terminals.
Among the instruments used, card fraud recorded a significant decrease, declining by 47.66%. from 21,469 in Q1 to 11,237 in Q2.
In contrast, fraudulent activities involving cheques and cash increased by 36.67% and 9.09%, respectively, with cheques surging from 30 cases in Q1 to 41 cases in Q2, while the use of cash rose from 209 in the first quarter of 2024 to 228 in the second quarter of 2024.
