Heritage Bank Plc has partnered the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NEFF) on the prevention of fraud in the Nigerian banking system.
The bank’s Managing Director, Ifie Sekibo, who gave this hint at the unveiling of the 2017 NEFF Annual Report in Lagos recently, said that the lender was proud of the achievements recorded by the forum, remarking that the advent of the forum has undoubtedly created revolutionary effect in the conception of banking services in the industry.
Sekibo, who was represented by the bank’s Executive Director, Services and CIO, Mr. Ike Williams, explained that financial institutions in the country had exploited these successes to introduce innovative banking products, especially e-products.
He also commended Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, the out-going Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Operations, describing him as an exceptional leader who made invaluable contributions to the success of the forum, remarking that it will be difficult for any to surpass the achievements he recorded for the forum.
Earlier while unveiling the NEFF 2017 annual report, titled “Tightening the Belt of e-fraud Prevention: A 4 sided approach,” Adelabu, noted that in an environment that has witnessed fast-paced growth in both volume and value of electronic transactions, it would not be out of the ordinary if fraud attempts are also on the increase.
Adelabu, who was represented by the apex bank’s Director of other Financial Institutions Department, Mrs. Tokunbo Martins, pointed out that a true test of resilience security and strength of a payments system is where losses were minimized, and measures taken to learn from those losses to forestall a recurrence.
According to him, in the last six years of the forum existence, NEFF has consistently acted as a catalyst in the formulation of cohesive and effective fraud and risk management strategies.
He noted that the forum had contributed to a year on year reduction in actual losses from e-fraud as reported by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBBS), which accounted for the 25.71 percent in actual loss value in 2017 when compared to actual loss figures for 2016.
Adelabu also commended NEFF for its decision to focus on fraud mitigation by engaging all stakeholders from banking, other eco system players, law enforcement agencies and telecommunication operators which has been put together to form the acronym BELT, from which collaboration should be tightened always.
In her contribution, Mrs. Christabel Onyejekwe, Executive Director, Technology & Operations, NIBBS, said the organization has been adding value to the eco-system through the deployment of electronic banking and formulation of measures to monitor fraud.
She said that the NIBBS would continue to collaborate with other stakeholders in the continued effort to reduce e-fraud in the system.
