Few days ago, a surgeon told me a very sad story of how she was swindled no thanks to Nigeria’s rapidly advancing payment system. She was called to the Accident & Emergency Unit in the middle of the night for an operate-or-patient-dies case. She sprang into action and saved the patient’s life. She then decided to rest in Doctors’ Call Room but had a rude awakening in the morning – account debit notifications totally NGN400,000
She went to the bank but they decided to exonerate themselves from any blame or liability.
A similar incident happened right in my presence in a banking hall in Shagamu, Ogun state. A man, a petty trader, approached the customer care desk for help on debits on his account totaling NGN7,000 – everything he had in life was wiped away by hoodlums that lured him via SMS and a phone call to give up his PIN. The UBA officials said they couldn’t help him and blamed him for giving his PIN to strangers. They didn’t even try and here is where the problem truly lies.
Nigeria is not the only place where payment fraud is paramount, it is a global phenomenon. According to the Nilson Report released yesterday, it was revealed that banks and merchants worldwide shouldered total fraud losses of $21.84 billion in 2015 on payment card purchases totaling $31.31 trillion. The losses are expected to total $31.67 billion by 2020. So, it’s not really just about Nigeria lone. However, the peculiar case in Nigeria is that while banks are quick to roll out electronic payment and banking solutions, they are swift to exonerate themselves, customers elsewhere are protected and actively supported in ensuring that those responsible for the theft are probed to the best of banking technology.
The aftermath of both fraud cases I personally saw this week made me realize why many Nigerians will continue to be reluctant in embracing innovation in payments. The safest people are folks like my dad who refuse to apply for ATM cards, electronic and mobile banking services.
“It is more difficult for fraudulent activities to be carried out on bank accounts without ATM cards and mobile banking features than yours that has all that and more,” he once told me.
Looking at how the banks washed their hands off the surgeon and the petty trader’s fraud report made me to begin to find wisdom in my dad’s mindset on banking. Until banks handle electronic frauds like the way they handle the ones done with cheques, the booming digital banking space in Nigeria will continue to be on a time bomb – only one major fraud away from meltdowns in the banking halls.
