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NDIC raises concerns over high incidence of fraud

By BusinessNews Staff on October 23, 2015

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation has expressed concern over the high incidence of fraud and forgeries in the banking system.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, noted this in an address presented at the 2015 workshop organised by the corporation for financial journalists in Ilorin on Wednesday.

He pointed out that Section 35 and 36 of the NDIC Act, 2006 had mandated all deposit-taking financial institutions to send returns on frauds, forgeries and other financial malpractices to the corporation on monthly basis.

According to the NDIC boss, banks are also expected to notify the corporation on any member of staff that has been dismissed or have their appointments terminated or advised to retire on grounds of financial infractions.

He said, “A total of 10,612 fraud cases in banks were reported in 2014, as against 3,786 cases in 2013, which showed an increase of 183 per cent. The amount involved in 2013 was N21.80bn as against N25.61bn in 2014. The types and nature of frauds and forgeries were largely web-based, ATM card related, fraudulent transfer/withdrawal of deposits, among others.”

Ibrahim, however, said the corporation in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria had embarked on various public awareness initiatives with a view to drastically reducing the percentage of Nigerians who have no access to any form of financial services from 39 per cent to 20 per cent by 2020.

He explained, “The attention of the regulatory/supervisory authorities and operators has been drawn to this onerous task of focusing our attention to massive public awareness; hence, the rationale behind bringing to the fore the issues of e-banking, capacity of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises in the mobile payments system and effective management of associated risks to mobile payment system and effective management of associated risks to this workshop.

“Other areas of interest include relevance of mobile money services and pass-through deposit insurance, investigations and monitoring of e-banking transactions, role of the media in integration of financial inclusion and education.”

He added, “The NDIC, as a leading deposit insurer, has been responding creditably well to emerging developments in the global financial system, particularly the pass-through insurance, financial literacy, consumer protection, financial inclusion, sustainable banking and extension of deposit insurance coverage to depositors of non-interest banking sector.

“The success of the mobile money operators and e-banking cannot also be complete without mentioning the collaboration of all the key players, particularly the CBN, Nigeria Communication Commission, Federal Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Communication Technology, telecommunication companies and the media.

“The NDIC’s role is to protect the interest of the subscribers of MMOs through reimbursement of their claims in the event of failure of banks where their MMOs maintain their pool accounts. It has so far been observed that majority of the general public is still very much in the dark about the advantages of the mobile banking services, mobile payment systems and pass-through deposit insurance, which therefore calls for intensive public awareness in order to ensure the success of the mobile payment system in Nigeria.”

He listed challenges confronting e-banking, mobile payments and deposit insurance to include inadequate and poor infrastructure arising from lack of constant power supply, poor linkage access roads to remote locations and inadequate telecoms services in most locations and high overhead cost on the part of operators relying on alternative power source to ensure effective and efficient service delivery.

[Punch]

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