Regulators, banks, fintechs, and telecoms unite under NeFF to combat rising e-fraud and protect Nigeria’s digital finance ecosystem
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled a bold, industry-wide strategy to tackle rising digital fraud, aiming to reduce fraud response times to under 30 minutes.
Deputy Governor for Financial System Stability, Philip Ikeazor, made the announcement at the 2026 Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) Technical Kick-Off Session in Lagos. The event brought together regulators, banks, fintechs, payment service providers, telecom operators, and law enforcement agencies to map out a coordinated approach to fraud mitigation.
Represented by Ibrahim Umar Hassan, Director of Development and Finance Institutions Supervision, Ikeazor said the CBN is shifting from reactive fraud controls to predictive, real-time, enterprise-wide management systems. This comes as electronic fraud losses have surged in recent years.
“Fraud is no longer merely an operational issue; it is a financial stability concern. Unchecked fraud undermines trust in digital finance, threatens financial inclusion gains, and poses systemic risks to the economy,” Ikeazor said.
The new approach, he explained, will involve measurable actions such as ensuring fraud response times fall below 30 minutes, a step expected to improve recovery outcomes and limit systemic exposure.
Highlighting past achievements, Ikeazor noted NeFF’s role in strengthening Nigeria’s payments system, citing the migration to EMV chip-and-PIN cards which virtually eliminated ATM card cloning and the introduction of mandatory two-factor authentication for electronic banking. These initiatives helped reduce e-fraud losses between 2014 and 2017, even as transaction volumes expanded rapidly.
However, he warned that emerging threats including social engineering, SIM-swap fraud, insider compromise, and authorised push payment (APP) scams require stronger, faster, and more coordinated industry responses.
Ikeazor highlighted Nigeria’s progress in identity management, particularly the integration of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) with the National Identification Number (NIN), which has curtailed impersonation and synthetic identity fraud. He also pointed to the migration to ISO 20022, a global messaging standard that provides richer transaction data for improved traceability, analytics, and early fraud detection.
“Beyond compliance, ISO 20022 gives us the data depth required for faster investigations, better pattern recognition, and more effective collaboration including across borders,” he said.
Opening the session, Rakiya O. Yusuf, Director of Payments System Supervision at the CBN and NeFF Chair, emphasised that sustained collaboration among regulators, financial institutions, fintechs, identity management agencies, and law enforcement is essential to reducing electronic fraud.
Looking ahead, Ikeazor said the CBN will focus on bold fraud-reduction targets, strengthened accountability, deeper fintech and telecom engagement, and transparent performance measurement through industry scorecards.
“With clear targets, shared responsibility, and sustained collaboration, 2026 must be remembered as the turning point when Nigeria decisively shrank fraud losses and secured the future of its digital financial ecosystem,” he said.
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