Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) building in Abuja
Nigeria recorded an estimated ₦25.85 billion in losses to digital payment fraud in 2025, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), despite improvements in the country’s electronic payment security framework.
The apex bank disclosed this in its latest assessment of risks confronting Nigeria’s payment system, noting that fraud-related losses declined significantly from ₦52.26 billion recorded in 2024.
The CBN attributed the reduction in losses to stronger fraud detection systems, tighter operational controls and enhanced identity verification through the integration of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and the National Identification Number (NIN).
“The lower losses in 2025 reflected improvements in monitoring, BVN-NIN integration and tighter controls,” the report stated.
Despite the decline, the CBN warned that Nigeria’s expanding digital payment ecosystem remains vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals and operational risks.
According to the report, banks, fintech firms and other payment service providers continue to face threats from ransomware attacks, data breaches and identity theft, with cyberattacks becoming more organised and targeted.
The apex bank also expressed concern over the concentration of payment transactions among a few Systemically Important Payment Service (SIPS) providers, warning that disruptions affecting any of the major operators could trigger widespread instability across the financial system.
It said failures involving key payment providers could disrupt transactions nationwide because of the growing interconnection among banks and fintech platforms, potentially affecting millions of users.
The report further identified poor interoperability as a major challenge within Nigeria’s digital payments ecosystem. About half of the fintech stakeholders surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with existing payment infrastructure, citing the lack of universal Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and standardised data-sharing frameworks as barriers to seamless transactions.
The CBN also cautioned Nigerians against using unlicensed payment service providers, warning that such operators function outside regulatory oversight and expose customers to significant financial and legal risks.
According to the bank, users of unlicensed payment platforms are not covered by existing regulatory protections, while the platforms could be exploited for money laundering and other illicit financial activities that may undermine confidence in the country’s financial system.
To address the growing risks, the CBN called for closer collaboration among regulators, financial institutions and technology firms to strengthen fraud prevention measures, improve cybersecurity resilience, enhance payment infrastructure and sustain public confidence in Nigeria’s digital payments ecosystem.
