The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System has revealed that Lagos, Rivers States and the Federal Capital Territory led the financial fraud count in 2023.
This was disclosed in its Annual Fraud Landscape (January to December 2023) published on its website on Monday. The report indicated that Ogun and Kaduna States were also hotbeds for financial fraud in the country.
In terms of fraud count and actual loss recorded in the year, Lagos recorded the highest values, indicating 48 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively. The report stated that financial institutions lost about N17.67bn to fraud in 2023. Lagos did not make significant progress in the fight against financial fraud, as the number of recorded cases worsened to 46,224 last year from 45,952 in 2022.
Meanwhile, it succeeded in cutting down the value of loss from fraud by 12 per cent to N8.7bn, compared to N9.9bn in the prior year. In Abuja, the fraud count was only reduced by 26 to 4,548, while the value of money stolen soared by 73.17 per cent to N994m from N574m in 2022. Rivers State also recorded a decline to 3,285 in fraud count from 3,785, with the actual loss value decreasing to N433m from N319m.
PUNCH
