Nigeria recorded close to 357 bank employees’ involvement in automated teller machine fraud in 2010. This was the report released on the activities of the country’s National Deposit Insurance Corporation released in Abuja at the weekend.
According to the report made accessible to the media, the figure represented a decrease of 48.58% from 2009 when about 656 staffers of banks were nabbed. Nigerians who have expertise in banking, finance and information systems degrees are
more hit in employment discrimination because most countries’ financial institutions do not trust them enough. To safeguard against fraud and identity thefts, Nigerians are usually not employed in the critical financial sectors.
What was a major nag amongst Nigerians abroad is not being unleashed inside the country. For sure Nigeria does something about such financial crimes now, thanks to multi-institutional attacks on evil financial practices. But the high figure of bank workers involved raises questions on internal risks for the banking public and the workability of the proposed cashless economy to be introduced by the country’s Apex Bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
A total of 1,532 reported cases of frauds and forgeries were reported, either attempted or successful, with the total amount involved of over N21 billion in the year 2010, according to extracts from the 2010 report of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), released on Friday. This was, however, a decline when compared with the 1,764 reported cases of frauds and forgeries involving over N41.3 billion in 2009.
According to the NDIC, the expected loss components of the reported cases of frauds and forgeries, that is, those whose probability of recovery was low as well as those not fully covered by Fidelity Insurance Bond amounted to over N11.68 billion in 2010 as against over N7 billion in 2009. The ten banks with the highest number of reported frauds cases were responsible for 51.08 per cent of the total amount involved in 2010 compared to 90.10 per cent in 2009, according to the report, adding that the total amount involved (for the ten banks), which stood at N10.87 billion in 2010, was considerably lower than the 2009 figure of N37 billion.
An analysis of the types of frauds and forgeries perpetrated during the year under review showed that the commonest types were the following: ATM fraud; fraudulent transfers/ withdrawals; lodgment of stolen warrants; presentation of forged cheques; suppression of customer deposit; granting of unauthorized credits; loss of money to armed robbers and outright theft.
Of the total, core operation staff such as supervisors, officers, accountants, managers, executive assistants, clerks and cashiers totaled 286, thus accounting for about 80.11 per cent. That represented an increase of 14.41 percentage points relative to the 2009 position. “The causes of frauds and forgeries can be classified under two generic factors namely the institutional or endogenous factors and environmental or exogenous factors,” the report stated.
Additional Reports from National Mirror (Nigeria).