Business Briefs
THE Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, has said that Nigerian banking industry lost N15.15 billion to cases of fraud in 2018. This indicated an increase of 539 percent when compared to N2.37 billion lost in 2017.
The NDIC in its 2018 report published on its website stated that the total amount involved in fraud in the year under review stood at N38.93 billion compared to N12.01 billion in 2017. The report said a total of 37,817 fraud cases were reported in 2018, compared to 26,182 in 2017.
The NDIC attributed the increase in fraudulent cases to increase in the sophistication of fraud-related techniques such as hacking, cybercrime as well as increase in IT-related products and usage, fraudulent withdrawals and unauthorised credit.
According to the report, internet and technology-based sources of fraud have the highest frequency, accounting for 59.2 percent of fraud cases and 42.83 percent of the actual total loss suffered. It noted that the number of ATM/card-related fraud cases, however, declined from 16,397 in 2017 to 10,063 in 2018.
“That may be attributed to improved security features of the card as well as security awareness on the part of users. But web-based fraud cases, however, increased from 7,869 in 2017 to 12,343 in 2018,” it said.
Notably, the report stated that some of the fraud and forgery cases had staff involvement with a total of 899 staff involved in fraud and forgery cases in 2018 compared to 320 in 2017. It noted that the number of temporary staff involved in fraud was 394, accounting for 43.83 percent of the total number of staff involved in frauds.
This was followed by officers and executive assistants’ cadre with 206 or 22.91 percent. Supervisors and managers accounted for 119 or 13.24 percent of the total fraud cases.
The NDIC said the number of temporary staff involved in fraud and forgery cases had consistently been on the increase. “The Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, and regulators need to address the problem of contract/temporary staff in terms of welfare and permanent employment in view of the risk their current status poses to banks operations. Furthermore, banks should strengthen their internal controls and validate their recruitment process.”
– Aug. 2, 2019 @ 17:15 GMT |
Tags: Banks lost N15.15bn to fraud in 2018 – NDIC
