Nigeria's banking industry and its customers lost a combined N134.48 billion to fraud between 2020 and 2025, highlighting the growing risks facing the country's rapidly expanding digital payments ecosystem.
The revelation is contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 document, which showed that fraudsters attempted to steal N187.79 billion during the six-year period, with actual losses amounting to more than N134 billion.
The report paints a picture of a financial sector grappling with increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes as electronic payments gain wider acceptance among Nigerians.
Data from the document indicate that fraud losses rose consistently over the period under review. Banks and customers lost N11.61 billion in 2020, N12.77 billion in 2021 and N14.32 billion in 2022. The figure increased to N17.67 billion in 2023 before surging to N52.26 billion in 2024, the highest annual loss recorded within the six years.
The sharp rise in 2024 accounted for nearly two-fifths of all fraud losses recorded between 2020 and 2025.
A similar trend was observed in attempted fraud cases. The value of attempted fraud increased from N13.26 billion in 2020 to N14.48 billion in 2021, N16.41 billion in 2022 and N19.72 billion in 2023 before skyrocketing to N86.36 billion in 2024.
The CBN, however, reported a significant turnaround in 2025, with attempted fraud declining to N37.57 billion and actual losses dropping to N25.85 billion.
According to the apex bank, the spike recorded in 2024 was largely linked to a major internal fraud incident involving N30 billion.
The report noted that although fraud cases across Internet banking, mobile banking and Point of Sale (POS) channels declined during the year, the single incident substantially inflated industry-wide loss figures. It added that web-related fraud incidents rose by 169 per cent during the period.
The CBN explained that the development underscored the extent to which a major fraud case can distort overall industry statistics despite progress in reducing fraud across several electronic channels.
The document also highlighted changing fraud patterns across payment platforms over the years.
In 2021, web fraud losses fell significantly, but overall losses still increased as POS-related fraud incidents jumped by 276 per cent.
In 2022, fraud losses grew by 12 per cent, driven mainly by major fraud incidents involving corporate accounts. ATM fraud cases also surged by more than 2,000 per cent despite reductions in fraud recorded on mobile, POS and web channels.
The following year witnessed a sharp rise in e-commerce fraud. According to the report, losses increased by 23 per cent in 2023 as e-commerce-related fraud incidents surged by 1,961 per cent, while mobile, web and POS channels recorded moderate increases.
Despite the challenges, the regulator said industry-wide efforts helped reverse the trend in 2025.
It attributed the decline in fraud losses to stronger regulatory measures, enhanced monitoring systems, improved fraud-prevention strategies and increased collaboration among banks and other stakeholders within the financial services sector.
The CBN said electronic payment fraud declined by 51 per cent in 2025, describing the development as evidence that ongoing reforms and coordinated industry actions were beginning to yield results.
The findings come at a time when Nigeria is witnessing unprecedented growth in digital financial services, with instant transfers, mobile banking applications, fintech platforms and digital wallets becoming central to everyday transactions.
In the foreword to the Payments System Vision 2028 document, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso said Nigeria's payments landscape had become one of the most innovative and dynamic globally, driven by advances in technology and increasing adoption of real-time payment systems.
He noted that while the country had made significant progress under the Payments System Vision 2025 framework, sustaining that growth would require stronger safeguards against emerging threats.
To address the challenges, the apex bank said the new Payments System Vision 2028 framework would focus on strengthening security, enhancing consumer confidence, promoting innovation, deepening financial inclusion and improving collaboration across the payments ecosystem.
The framework is also expected to bolster cybersecurity, improve regulatory oversight and leverage emerging technologies to tackle evolving fraud risks in the financial sector.
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