The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has placed 7,552 Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) on its watchlist for fraudulent transactions, despite the fact that the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), known as eNaira, has recorded 1.4 million transactions to date, a 100% increase from 700,000 transactions in November 2022.
Similarly, for seamless financial transactions in the country, Nigeria is moving towards cardless and other contactless payment options, such as QR Codes and NFC.
The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said yesterday at the 34th Finance Correspondents and Business Editors seminar in Calabar, Cross River State, themed “Implementing a Robust Payment Architecture Prospects, Opportunities, and Challenges,” that the Nigeria payment system landscape has continued to record significant changes and development.
Emefiele, who was represented by the director of Monetary Policy, Dr Hassan Mahmud, stated that the apex bank has continued to modify the features of eNaira since its launch to make it more accessible to a wide range of users.
“Today, the eNaira does not require a smartphone to be used because it is now compatible with all generations of mobile devices (old and new).” “Over 1.4 million transactions have passed through the eNaira platform to date,” he added.
He stated that the introduction of COVID-19, without a doubt, triggered rapid advancements in financial technology, resulting in the rapid digitisation of money and finance, and that the apex bank took advantage of the opportunity by launching the eNaira in October 2021.
He explained that the eNaira was created to expand Nigerians’ payment options and foster digital financial inclusion, with the potential to accelerate intergovernmental and social transfers.
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The CBN governor also revealed that the total BVN enrolment as of March 31, 2023 was 57.43 million, and that the BVN has assisted the industry in investigating fraud and other related crimes.
“The BVN is assisting in the development of credit profiles for banking customers, which will aid banks in improving credit access for credit-worthy borrowers.” As part of our plans to alleviate the constraint associated with poor identification of banking customers, BVN has continued to feature in our KYC requirements. “We have maintained our support for the aggressive enrolment of prospective banking customers in the informal sector into the BVN system,” he said.
Emefiele stated that cyber threats and fraud activities of fraudsters continue to threaten the resilience of payment platforms, and that these activities have an impact on public confidence. He revealed that the Central Bank of Nigeria and other industry players are working together to kerb the nefarious activities of these fraudsters.
According to him, “in response to the challenges posed by cyber threats, the CBN is addressing these hiccups with the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), payment card industry data security standard, financial industry cybersecurity fusion centre, and other initiatives against cybersecurity and fraud in Nigeria.”
He promised that the bank would continue to take a collaborative approach to reducing cybersecurity threats in the payments system, saying that “a holistic mechanism for addressing cybersecurity threats requires policy and operational actions by all stakeholders.”
“As you are aware, the Bank issued a Risk-Based Cyber-Security Framework and Guidelines for Other Financial Institutions, effective January 2023, to ensure their operational resilience in the face of cyber-security threats.”
In his paper, Musa Jimoh, the CBN’s director of Payment Systems Management, who was represented by Adefuye Adeyemi, the deputy director of Payment Systems, revealed that 7,552 people were on the BVN watchlist for fraud-related transactions.
According to him, centralising the BVN has enabled the CBN to track fraudulent individuals and entities involved in forgery, compromise, complicity, fraudulent duplicate enrolment, and any other fraudulent infraction with or without monetary value.
Speaking further on cardless and other contactless payment options, he stated that the banking industry is rapidly evolving towards cardless and other contactless payment options, and that the regulator has issued robust regulations to standardise contactless payment operations in Nigeria.
He stated that contactless payments allow financial transactions to be completed without physical contact between the payer and acquiring devices, and that it is an innovative payment option for the safe and efficient processing of low-value, high-volume payments.
This, along with other payment initiatives, he emphasised, have helped open a vista of new opportunities in the payment ecosystem, with the market witnessing the deployment of new payment solutions as a result of these revolutionary technological developments.
“Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and contactless payments are just a few of the areas that are opening up new doors for operators.” The recently released Payments System Vision (PSV) 2025 also includes several recommendations aimed at driving the implementation of some of the most cutting-edge technologies to ensure the system’s resilience and safety,” he emphasised.
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He emphasised that the Nigerian payments and financial services sector is ranked among the best in terms of innovation, regulation, and resilience, and that the support of all financial institutions and stakeholders is essential to sustain the successes achieved.
In this regard, he stated that the CBN is prepared to continue strengthening the institutional and regulatory frameworks that will encourage further development of the payments system and promote the use of secure and credible electronic products, as outlined in the PSV 2025 strategic plan.
