Fraudsters steal N134bn from Nigerian Banks, customers as digital payments boom — CBN alerts

Fraudsters siphoned a staggering N134.48 billion from Nigerian banks and their customers between 2020 and 2025, exposing the growing risks accompanying the country’s rapid shift to digital payments, according to new data released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The alarming figures are contained in the CBN’s Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 document, which revealed that attempted fraud across the banking and payments ecosystem reached N187.79 billion during the six-year period, while actual losses amounted to N134.48 billion.
The losses were recorded across multiple payment channels, including Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Point of Sale (POS) terminals, mobile banking, internet banking, e-commerce platforms, cheques, over-the-counter transactions, and other electronic payment systems, underscoring the mounting challenge of securing Nigeria’s increasingly digital financial landscape.
An analysis of the report showed a steady rise in fraud losses over the years. Banks and customers lost N11.61 billion in 2020, N12.77 billion in 2021, and N14.32 billion in 2022. The figure climbed further to N17.67 billion in 2023 before surging dramatically to N52.26 billion in 2024—the highest annual loss recorded during the period.
The 2024 fraud losses alone accounted for nearly 39 per cent of the total amount lost between 2020 and 2025, highlighting the scale of the threat facing financial institutions, payment service providers, and millions of customers nationwide.
The report also revealed a sharp escalation in attempted fraud. Fraud attempts rose 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.
However, the CBN noted that both attempted fraud and actual losses declined significantly in 2025. Fraud attempts dropped to N37.57 billion, while actual losses fell to N25.85 billion, suggesting that stronger industry safeguards may be beginning to yield results.
According to the apex bank, the unprecedented spike recorded in 2024 was largely driven by a single major internal fraud incident involving N30 billion.
“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 N30 billion. Web fraud incidents also increased by 169 per cent,” the CBN stated in the report.
The regulator explained that the incident demonstrated how one large-scale fraud event could distort industry-wide statistics, even when fraud levels across several digital channels were showing signs of improvement.
The report traced the changing nature of fraud trends over the years. In 2021, web-based fraud declined by 43 per cent, but overall losses still rose because POS fraud incidents surged by 276 per cent. In 2022, fraud losses increased by 12 per cent, driven largely by attacks on corporate accounts, while ATM-related fraud jumped by more than 2,000 per cent despite reductions in fraud across mobile, POS, and web channels.
By 2023, e-commerce had emerged as a major target for fraudsters. “Fraud losses rose by 23 per cent, largely due to a spike in e-Commerce incidents, which escalated by 1,961 per cent. Mobile, POS, and Web channels recorded moderate increases,” the CBN disclosed.
Despite the persistent threat, the apex bank reported a notable turnaround in 2025, attributing the improvement to stricter regulations, enhanced fraud monitoring, and greater collaboration among banks, fintech firms, and other stakeholders within the payments ecosystem.
“In 2025, electronic payment fraud declined by 51 per cent, demonstrating the success of stricter regulations, increased industry cooperation, enhanced prevention strategies, and improved monitoring,” the document stated, adding that collaborative safeguards had been strengthened to reduce vulnerabilities across payment platforms.
The findings come as Nigeria witnesses unprecedented growth in digital financial services. In the foreword to the Payments System Vision 2028 document, CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, said Nigeria’s payments ecosystem had become one of the most dynamic and innovative globally, driven by real-time payments, fintech innovation, and growing digital adoption. While acknowledging the gains in financial inclusion and transaction efficiency, Cardoso stressed that the next phase of growth must be anchored on stronger cybersecurity, consumer protection, and fraud prevention measures. Under the new vision, the CBN plans to prioritise security, trust, innovation, interoperability, inclusion, and collaboration as it seeks to build a more resilient payments ecosystem capable of combating increasingly sophisticated fraud threats.