Nigerian commercial banks have lost a total sum of N42.6bn to fraud and forgeries over three months from April to June this year, a new report has stated. The amount lost in the second quarter of 2024 alone exceeded the total amount lost to fraud by the banks throughout the entire year of 2023. In 2023, the banks lost a total of N9.4bn. This was revealed by the Financial Institutions Training Centre in its Q2 2024 Fraud and Forgeries report released on Saturday, highlighting a surge in fraudulent activities across banking platforms. The FITC report is based on returns on fraud and forgery cases received from 28 deposit money institutions in the country. According to FITC, 80 of such returns were received in the quarter under review. It said that 26 reports were submitted in April, while twenty-seven 27 reports were received in both May and June. A breakdown of FITC’s data showed that the Q2 loss shows an 8,993 per cent increase in loss when compared with the N468.4m lost in Q1 2024. This also represents a 637 per cent increase when compared with the N5.7bn loss recorded in Q2 2023. FITC said ‘miscellaneous and other fraud’ types constituted the largest loss, representing 96.46 per cent of the total amount lost, with a value of N41.14bn. This was followed by losses from fraudulent withdrawals and computer/web fraud, amounting to approximately N781.2m and N400.7m, respectively. According to the report, there was a staggering 1,784 per cent dustries Limited, Devakumar V.G. Edwin had alleged that marketers were not patronizing Dangote refinery’s products. Edwin spoke during an X (formerly Twitter) space hosted by Nairametrics. He claimed that despite the refinery’s efforts to supply affordable petroleum products, many traders in Nigeria have refused to purchase from the refinery, preferring to continue importing refined products from abroad. He said that despite the refinery’s large production capacity, local marketers only purchased about 3 per cent of the products. According to him, the remaining 97 per cent of the refinery’s production, including diesel and jet fuel, is products nation-wide.” Adewole said the alleged boycott of Dangote Refinery’s PMS was incorrect as petroleum marketers were still awaiting clearance from the government on the modalities regarding the offtake of PMS from the refinery. He said: “DAPPMAN as evidenced by patronage of various products from the Dangote Refinery by its members believes firmly in meeting Nigeria’s energy needs and remains aligned to calls for the nation not to end up in a monopoly, which will only jeopardise our economic growth and development.”
Adewole noted that DAPPMAN and other marketers had consistently stated that the trading of petroleum products globally rests on the critical issues of price and quality. “Offtake will, in keeping with the laws of demand and supply, gravitate towards sources where products can be bought at a lower price, better quality and seamless accessibility,” he stated. He reassured Nigerians that DAPPMAN would continue to work assiduously towards giving the nation top-notch fuel solutions, whilst securing the sustainability of the sector. being exported due to the alleged boycott by local traders who allegedly refuse to buy at the refinery’s prices. Edwin said:
“The whole purpose of doing this refinery in Nigeria was to utilize our local crude instead of exporting raw materials and importing finished products. We should be able to refine and use the finished products within Nigeria and produce more to export the surplus.” But according to DAPPMAN, documents sourced from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Independent local marketers, including Asharami, MRS Oil and Gas, AA Rano, Rainoil, Prudent, NIPCO, Aym Shafa and Danmarna, among many others, have patronised Dangote Refinery over the past months, a development the marketers said reinforces their commitment to ensuring seamless access to petroleum products across the nation. Further analysis of the transactions which occurred between April and September, 2024 showed marketers lifted 489,500mt of AGO and 29, 000mt of Jet A1 distributed across various Nigerian ports, with 17 AGO shipments to Lagos, 6 to Warri, 2 to Port Harcourt, and 1 to Calabar. All three Jet A1 shipments were discharged in Lagos. The marketers, however, said the alleged lack of clarity surrounding the availability of Dangote Refinery’s Premium Motor Spirit (also known as petrol), remained a stumbling block to patronage within the local market. According to Adewole, Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), the sector needs to operate transparently in a manner that gives all stakeholders the opportunity to thrive and contribute significantly to the quest of ensuring “availability, reliability and accessibility of petroleum increase in the total amount involved in fraud cases from Q1 to Q2 2024, with the sum escalating from N2.9bn to approximately N56.3bn in Q2.
During the second quarter of 2024, fraudulent activities were carried out through various channels, including ATMs, online platforms like web and mobile banking, bank branches, and point-of-sale terminals. Among instruments used, card fraud recorded a significant decrease, declining by 47.66 per cent from 21,469 in Q1 to 11,237 in Q2. In contrast, fraudulent activity involving cheques and cash increased by 36.67 per cent and 9.09 per cent, respectively, with cheques surging from 30 cases in Q1 to 41 cases in Q2, while the use of cash rose from 209 in the first quarter of 2024 to 228 in the second quarter of 2024.
