The Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN) has advised banks to adopt urgent measures to combat fraudulent electronic cash withdrawals from citizens’ accounts in the nation.
BCAN President, Dr Uju Ogubunka, gave the advice on Sunday in an interview with news men in Lagos.
The advice came following the alert by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on new foreign airlines’ ticketing discount promos fraud.
Ogubunka, a financial expert, stated that to prevent fraudulent activities, banks must embrace continuous customer sensitisation while beefing up cybersecurity walls around their applications to make hacking impossible.
He also called for collaboration among banks, regulators, and financial services stakeholders toward averting fraud risks.
He noted that most customers were not properly briefed about bank apps, thereby increasing their gullibility to tricks adopted by fraudulent individuals.
He identified major causes of the increasing menace as ignorance and carelessness on the part of account holders, and a lack of compliance with regulatory guidelines on the part of banks.
Ogubunka explained that flouting regulatory guidelines usually opens banks to fraudsters, allowing them to hack into their systems and make withdrawals from customers’ accounts.
He warned customers against carelessly sharing vital information in the public domain, as well as leaving their devices, including phones and ATM cards, exposed to potential hackers.
“I have seen places where people drop their numbers and whatever instruments they are using, either their phone or their ATM card or whatever carelessly.
“When these things are handled carelessly, we don’t know who will come across them and decide to use them. Even some of these things have been manipulated from the web. So, customers need to be properly trained.
“If banks don’t create that kind of awareness, then they are also exposing customers to making the mistakes that will enable enemies to get into their system,” he said.
The BCAN boss also called for the development of local apps in the country, tailored to meet the peculiarities of challenges in the nation’s financial environment, to reduce hacks.
Ogubunka explained that most banking applications and software that run banking operations were not homegrown, thereby increasing the vulnerability of banks to hackers.
He said those applications might have been configured within the kind of environment and the experiences of people in the destinations they were imported from.
He added, however, that regulatory authorities had guidelines in place on standard procedures for the adoption of such foreign apps.
He explained that banks that breached such procedures become susceptible to anybody hacking into their systems.
“Beyond apps, the first thing is to comply with regulations, rules and regulations that the Central Bank of Nigeria has put in place.
“Banks should comply with those guidelines before saying to customers, ‘we have this product, come and use it,” Ogubunka added.
He commended and urged the Bankers’ Committee, CBN, and NDIC to continue their ongoing collective sensitisation toward taming the menace.
He explained the ongoing collaboration of BCAN with CBN and other stakeholders toward adequate information dissemination to Nigerians.
He urged customers to report fraudulent activities to relevant authorities, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), or BCAN.
He assured that if a bank was found liable, the customer would receive a full refund.
The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), in its February report, accused Nigerian banks and fintechs of flouting CBN’s daily withdrawal limit on accounts and wallets, thereby allowing fraudsters access to huge daily funds.
NIBSS reported a surge in fraud, with financial institutions in Nigeria losing N52.26 billion to fraud in 2024.
The report identified those within the age bracket of 40 and above as prime targets and were perceived to have already succeeded in various fields and endeavors.
He urged those within those age brackets to constantly upgrade their IT skills to be ahead of hackers.
News Men report that issues of fraudulent withdrawals also formed part of discussions at the inauguration of the Basel Accord in Nigeria on July 2.
During the virtual conference, organised by the Association of Enterprise Risk Management Professionals (AERMP), experts across the globe advocated for measures.
AERMP inaugurated the Basel Accord Day and the Global Financial Regulations Day on the same day in Nigeria to promote financial stability in the nation.
Basel Accords are a series of banking supervision accords developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) to regulate the banking sector and promote global financial stability.
The accords establish minimum capital requirements and risk management standards for banks, aiming to improve their ability to withstand financial shocks and enhance transparency and risk management practices.
The conference noted that Artificial Intelligence was making crime tools cheaper and easily available to hackers, hence the need for good cyber response strategies towards closing vulnerability gaps.
They explained the need for cyberspace strategies for banks, business owners, and private individuals, alongside continuous public enlightenment campaigns.
Dr Blaise Ijebor, Director, Risk Management, Central Bank of Nigeria, who delivered a keynote at the event, listed upgraded versions of the Accord helping the apex bank keep the nation’s financial ecosystem safe.