By Joy Baba-Yesufu
Dr. Aminu Maida, Executive Vice-Chairman and CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has announced a partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) aimed at creating a robust regulatory framework to combat fraud in mobile financial transactions. This initiative comes as mobile channels increasingly become the primary mode of banking in Nigeria.
In his keynote address at the 2024 Annual Corporate Governance Conference in Lagos, which focused on “Corporate Survival and Sustainability: The New Face of Governance,” Dr. Maida emphasized the necessity of this collaboration. He stated, “The NCC is working with Central Bank to develop an effective framework to tackle fraud in mobile financial services.”
The proposed framework seeks to address the rising incidence of fraud affecting mobile financial services within Nigeria’s banking and financial sector. Dr. Maida pointed out that the reliance on mobile devices for financial transactions, whether through banking apps or mobile network operators’ Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes, highlights the urgency of this initiative.
He noted, “Most financial services are accessed via mobile, which links to the phone numbers used for these transactions. NCC has recognized that the current system lacks meaningful consequences for phone numbers associated with fraudulent activities and stressed the need for stronger enforcement measures.
Dr. Maida underscored the importance of corporate governance as the foundation for success and sustainability within Nigeria’s telecom industry announcing that NCC plans to release a revised corporate governance code, updating the 2016 version to include mandatory sustainability reporting for telecom operators.
In a related event earlier this week, stakeholders from Nigeria’s financial and banking sectors gathered in Abuja to discuss strategies for enhancing transparency in financial transactions to combat fraud and improve financial security. This high-level roundtable, organized by the Nigerian Finance Intelligence Unit (NIFU), focused on leveraging Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to enhance collaboration among Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism, and Combating Proliferation Financing (AML/CFT/CPF) stakeholders.
Experts at the forum emphasized the importance of collaboration among government entities, organizations, and private sector players to co-design and implement technology-driven solutions within Nigeria’s financial sector. They concluded that such partnerships would promote joint ownership of initiatives and significantly contribute to eradicating financial crimes in the country.
