The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System has said that digital payment fraud declined by 51 per cent in Nigeria to N25.85 billion in 2025 from a high of N52.26 billion in the previous year.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NIBSS, Premier Oiwoh, on Wednesday at the 2026 Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum Technical Kickoff Session held in Lagos.
At the event, held under the theme ‘Shrinking Fraud Losses With ISO 20022 & Identity Management,’ Oiwoh said, “Looking at industry fraud over the past five years, the number of cases has declined significantly. While case counts are important, what matters more is the value. In 2023, actual losses stood at about N17.67bn. In 2024, losses rose to N52.26bn, largely driven by a single fraud incident of N31.1bn involving one entity. In 2025, losses dropped significantly.”
According to the data he presented, the amount lost to digital fraud rose by 196 per cent in 2024 on the back of the incident involving the sole banking entity.
In terms of fraud count, the number has gone down over the past five years from 123,918 in 2021 to 101,669 in 2022 and 95,620 in 2023. It further dipped in 2024 to 70,111 and recorded a four per cent decline to 67,518 in 2025.
Geographically, Lagos (63.43 per cent) remains the epicentre of fraud-related activity, reflecting its role as Nigeria’s commercial hub.
“Abuja (Federal Capital Territory) (3.12 per cent) has also shown a significant rise in activity, while other states continue to feature,” he added. Other states highlighted included Ogun, Rivers and Delta States, with fraud volume distribution ranging from 2.51 per cent to 2.44 per cent and 2.09 per cent, respectively.
By channel, fraud remains most prevalent in e-commerce and internet banking, followed by point of sale, mobile, and web platforms.
“The most common fraud technique remains social engineering. Within this category, insider abuse is the greatest threat we face. Insider involvement is high, and recent investigations have confirmed this. Services such as SIM swap fraud, account compromise, and phishing continue to evolve. Awareness remains critical, as many victims are still easily deceived.
“We must prioritise internal controls, monitor staff activities closely, and pursue consistent joint industry action. Trust among institutions is essential. Last year alone, coordinated actions saved about N20bn that could have been lost,” he revealed.
However, fraud reporting declined by about 34 per cent in the last quarter of 2025.
“While some institutions reported zero incidents, non-reporting is unacceptable. Reporting enables tracking and investigation. In several cases investigated last year, individuals involved in fraud simply moved to other institutions because incidents were not reported,” he lamented.
