By Biodun Busari
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the weekend said its current cash withdrawal limit policy would help in tackling electronic fraud (e-fraud).
CBN Director of the Payments System Management Department, Musa Jimoh, made this known on Saturday yesterday in Lagos.
He also disclosed that as electronic payments continued to gain traction, fraudulent transactions in 2022 reduced by 35 per cent compared to last year.
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Speaking at the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) meeting, Jimoh said the new policy would prevent criminals from defrauding innocent people because of the withdrawal limits which would automatically trace and block such compromised accounts before the money is illegally withdrawn.
Jimoh said, “As we envisage and begin to put some limits on the cash withdrawal that can happen daily the incidence of fraud would also tame down- because right now, they steal huge amounts of money, and then at about from 2 am to 3 am, they go to an ATM and withdraw everything.”
“But right now, with the policy on limits, you would not be able to take as much and the system will be able to trace and block such accounts before the money is taken away.
“So, this cashless limit is also a way of deterring fraudsters from taking other people’s money,” Jimoh explained.
Speaking on the progress the CBN and NeFF have made in reducing e-fraud, the apex bank official said they have been able to barricade the payment infrastructure and the finance system against criminal activities.
He continued, “We have actually tamed down the incidence of fraud. We have recovered so many lost funds and we are putting formidable systems around our payment infrastructure and financial system infrastructure such that fraudsters cannot penetrate.”
“In terms of percentage, it is between 30 to 35 per cent decline in incidences of fraud. Remember, there are attempts and they are successful ones. The number of attempts is high, which means that they have been attempting but they are not successful and some are successful and so money is taken away.
“And in terms of recovery, we also recovered high numbers in terms of the percentage of the monies recovered because of the different initiatives and systems that have been put in place to checkmate all those fraudsters and to track wherever the money is taken into.”
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