Fraudsters defrauding with fake alerts

The move by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to deepen financial inclusion through the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities (SANEF) is being threatened by increasing incidences of fraud and robberies.

This is even as millions are being lost on a daily basis to fake alerts and fraudulent withdrawals.

According to the operators under the aegis of Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), attacks on the business have led to the death of many of their members.

Supported by deposit money banks (DMBs), Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), and Licensed Mobile Money Operators/Shared Agents, SANEF was incorporated in 2019 with the objective of accelerating financial inclusion in Nigeria.

However, in the cause of transactions, millions of naira have been lost by agents through different fraudulent activities of customers, who use fake alerts to receive money, while some with genuine transfers do so with stolen phones/SIMs, which are then traced to the PoS agents by security agencies.

While reviewing its 2020 report, NIBSS had said that fraud attempts via mobile channels increased by 330 per cent, while web and PoS fraud increased by 173 per cent and 215 per cent Year-on-Year respectively.

These numbers are in keeping with the notion that Internet penetration, mobile phone usage, and agency banking activities are all increasing.

The NIBSS expects this trend to continue as more people come online and become more dependent on electronic transactions for their day-to-day activities.

Besides the series of fraud, some operators of PoS outfits have lost their lives to direct robbery attacks.

Specifically, the National President of AMMBAN, Mr. Victor Olojo, said nine agents were killed in 2021.

“We have several members who have been made to pay hundreds of thousands of naira that they know nothing about just because those transactions passed through their channels. This is very disturbing for us as agents. We are also being robbed killed, all because we are trying to save Nigerians financially ” he said.

He noted that while the Association has been working with security agencies like the DSS and the police to address the situation, all stakeholders must come together to address the issue.

He said agents must now ensure they implement the KYC requirements as required by the framework released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Meanwhile, the Association also condemned the issuance of Point of Sales (PoS) machines to individuals without due diligence. According to the Association, the indiscriminate issuance of the machine is an abuse of the agent banking framework emplaced by the CBN.

The AMMBAN President said in Lagos that the situation was fuelling unprofessional conducts and fraudulent practices in the ecosystem.

“What we are seeing now is something close to abuse, a clear violation of what the framework issued out by the CBN.

Part of the framework of the CBN is that mobile money or bank agent should be in a brick and mortar location, like an address that is traceable. But what we have today are agents on the umbrellas, and under trees.

“There are traces that scrupulous or unscrupulous individuals now have access to PoS terminals. And that’s why from time to time we have continued to raise our voices to see the need for more coordination amongst the players in the framework of mobile money and agency banking in Nigeria,” he said.

Olojo said there was a need for all players and all stakeholders to come together to address the issue.

According to him, AMMBAN, internally, has launched its monitoring and evaluating units, which is a task force to ensure that mobile money and bank agents are registered under the Association.

On the contribution of the agent banking to the economy, Mr. Oluwasegun Elegbede, said the critical activities of mobile money and bank agents in Nigeria had, in no small measure, contributed to the enviable achievements being witnessed by the country in the financial inclusion drive.

While noting that mobile money and agency banking are deliberate innovations of the government, he said the creation was borne out of the goal of ensuring all Nigerians of bankable age are financially included.

Financial Inclusion refers to the provision of critical financial services to the financially excluded population of the country. This basically gives room for prosperity to spread evenly by giving the excluded population a safe place to save, receive money for goods and services supplied and build credible financial records which makes access to soft loans easier.

Elegbede, however, said that there were worrying realities in the system, which necessitated AMMBAN’s consistent calls for effective enforcement of the guidelines in the industry through the licensed operators.

“There is a need for proper supervision of entry and conduct of activities of all players in the value chain,” he said.

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