Banks lost N264.5bn to fraudsters in 45 months –– NDIC

By Kayode Tokede

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has said Nigerian banks lost over N264.5 billion to fraudsters between 2017 and September 2020.

NDIC’s executive director, corporate services, Mrs. Omotola Abiola-Edewor, stated this at the Corporation’s 2021 annual capacity building programme for law enforcement agencies in Lagos.

According to her records, the amount involved in the fraud cases stood at N204.65billion in 2019, compared to N38.93billion in 2018 and N12.01billion in 2017.

She said the total actual loss declined from N15.15billion in 2018 to N5.46billion in 2019. The NDIC official noted that the losses for only nine months (January to September 2020), was comparable to the financial losses insured institutions suffered for the entire 12 months of 2019.

She also said 52,754 fraud cases were reported to the NDIC against 37,817 in 2018 and 26,182 in 2017, according to the NDIC’s 2019 annual report.

Abiola-Edewor who was represented by one NDIC director, Joshua Etopidiok, referenced a report recently released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) as the source of the figures.

She added that ATM/Card-related fraud had the highest frequency, accounting for 49.78 per cent of fraud cases followed by web-based internet banking frauds with 21.02 per cent but it has higher loss value than the ATM frauds.

NDIC legal department director, Mr B. A. Taribo said the workshop is to develop capacity amongst law enforcement agencies in the investigation and prosecution of banking malpractices, with special emphasis on failed banks.