The value of electronic transactions rose to N48.93 trillion as at December 2015, up from N43.85 trillion in 2014, indicating an increase of 11.6 per cent, even as volume rose by 43.4 per cent to 162.59 million from 113.42 million in 2014.
Although the volume of transactions and fraud on the electronic banking channels have been on the rise in the past year, the value of actual loss to fraud has declined substantially, the Central Bank of Nigeria said.
While the volume of attempted fraud rose by 635 per cent in 2015, the attempted value and actual loss dropped by 43.6 and 63.7 per cents respectively.
According to the CBN director, Banking and Payment System, ‘Dipo Fatokun, the value of attempted fraud in 2015 dropped to N4.37 billion compared to the 2014 value of N7.75 billion. The value of actual loss to fraud likewise dropped to N2.25 billion in 2015 as against the N6.21 billion lost to fraud in 2014. Speaking in Ibadan yesterday at a seminar for finance journalists and editors organised by the apex bank, he said that the decline in fraud was as a result of the Bank Verification Number, the two way authentication factor, as well as the beefed up security features on the electronic payment channels.
On the e-dividend mandate, he noted that the apex bank was aware that some banks have continued to charge customers for the mandate contrary to the agreement that it will be free till the end of the first quarter of the year. Urging Nigerian investors to upload their e-dividend mandate before the March 31 grace period, after which it will attract a fee of N100, the CBN director noted that it will have a meeting with banks this week to ensure that they comply with the directive.
Fatokun also revealed that up to four super agents will be licenced by the apex bank before the end of the first quarter to further encourage the spread of agent banking in the country. Also speaking on mobile money operations in the county, Fatokun said that the value of transactions on the platform has been encouraging as it is on the increase. He explained that “the average value of transactions the MMOs carry out is in the neighborhood of over N3 billion per month with about 100,000 agents scattered all over the country.