INTERVIEW
Mrs. Onajite Regha, the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN) in an interaction with journalists, stresses the need to strengthen collaboration among stakeholders to tackle electronic fraud in the system, among others.
How would you assess Nigeria’s e-payment industry growth in 2015? What have we done well in terms of more people embracing the electronic transactions?
Certainly, the Nigeria e-payment industry has recorded a significant growth, especially in 2015. It is a highly competitive market with providers introducing new innovations, new market strategies and improved service delivery, among other things, to capture the market. I can categorically say that there has been major improvements in the general index of electronic transactions in Nigeria compared to the previous years. People are becoming more comfortable and are therefore using the channels more. But as you know, we still have a lot to do. A significant proportion of the population still remains unbanked and that is a worry for us at the Electronic Payment Providers Association (E-PPAN). We have pencilled down mobile payment as a solution to this challenge but we have not seen the impact we crave yet. 2015 has been a rather languorous year, with the elections and the change of government, naturally things were a bit slow in the year, but as we begin to understand the policies of the new government better, then investors will begin to align strategies and introduce more aggressive marketing and this will yield better results in 2016. The President Buhari’s administration is preaching anti-corruption, transparency and accountability. When we talk of payments there is no better way to achieve these ideals than using electronic payment.
Electronic fraud remains a major threat to uptake of electronic transactions as statistics show that banks lost N6.2 billion to e-fraud last year. Are there ongoing serious initiatives to tackle this?
All around the globe, electronic fraud is a major challenge because we know that the criminals follow the money. So now that money has moved online, we find criminals are there. But the fact is that industry stakeholders are not relenting by saying, “Oh, it is a global trend.” No, we are committed to a safer payment system in Nigeria. We understand that payment is the nerve-centre of the economy and we are ready to protect our turf. In the industry, we have realized that fraud is not a basis for competition. We can compete on several other areas, but certainly not on fraud. So we have seen increased collaborations within the industry in recent times. The industry has come up with many joint projects all to protect our users and the system. Funny enough, the fraudsters work together. They are organised. So if we have to check them, we have to be organized. You know technology evolves very fast and these fraudsters are usually very current with trends. Payment providers are also trying to keep up with this speed to ensure that our systems are safe. Recently, there have been so many initiatives to mitigate and control the incidences of electronic fraud in Nigeria, amongst other things. The chip and PIN was introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to eliminate the weaknesses of the magstripe cards. The CBN also mandated the two-factor authentication for internal banking process. Recently there was a circular on Card Present Fraud In Non-EMV environment. The operations of instant payments were also reviewed. The Nigeria electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) has not rested on its oars since its formation. In 2015, NeFF recorded a lot of successes including commitments from the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP). The IG in his response to one of the prayers of NeFF set up Dedicated Payment and Card Crime Unit (DPCCU). Also all banks now have a 24-hour fraud desk. The BVN project is a major achievement and very soon, we will all begin to enjoy the benefits of the BVN. The industry is also on the verge of establishing a Banking Risk Information Centre.
Do you think there is adequate collaboration among industry players across the e-payment value-chain strong enough to address the issue of e-fraud?
Let me put it this way, there are three steps in achieving safe payments. Step one is collaboration; step two is collaboration; and step three is collaboration. Fraud is not an issue for competition. Given the importance of providing secure payment systems while ensuring public confidence in electronic means of payment, the role of proactive fraud management cannot be over-emphasized. The collaborative effort among stakeholders in the industry has always been the major advocacy of E-PPAN. No organisation can achieve or single-handedly defeat the magnitude of the threat posed by electronic fraudsters. There is need to team up with the regulatory agencies, the law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and every single stakeholder in the payment chain. So we will continue to advocate for information sharing among the industry players, as this will go a long way to complement the ongoing efforts of the regulatory agencies in the industry.
A lot of people have fallen victims of scam emails and studies have shown that this may continue to be on the rise if not much education is embarked upon. Will you say banks have beien doing well in the area of public enlightenment?
Honestly, banks are investing so much in the fight against e-fraud because most of bank transactions now are done electronically. They are doing their best in consumer education through the use of social media, in-banking information, emails, short messaging service and adverts (print and media) for increased awareness of the antics of scammers in the electronic payment region, but due to the ignorance of customers they still fall prey to these fraudsters. But like we have seen, such individual efforts might not hold sway because we are fighting a strong and united force of cyber criminals. There is the need for more collaboration among banks to win this war. Hopefully, we will see the difference after we have an anti-fraud week where everyone is targeted with the same security message.
-Leadership