Access Bank, Nigeria’s largest bank by assets, reported losing ₦1.64 billion ($1.13 million) to fraud in H1 2025, a 254% increase from last year’s ₦464 million ($360,630).
The surge, detailed in its parent company’s latest filings, highlights how digital fraud in Nigeria is becoming more targeted and sophisticated.
The biggest culprit was forged instruments, which alone cost Access ₦831.96 million ($574,000). Fraudulent transfers and fake account reactivations also contributed to the losses. In total, Access faced ₦2.25 billion ($1.6 million) in attempted scams, with nearly three-quarters resulting in actual losses.
Industry data from the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), a financial research and advisory firm, shows fraud losses across Nigerian banks ballooned over 600% in Q1 2025, even as most incidents were traced to external actors, not insiders.
The rise comes as banks spend heavily on cybersecurity. Access increased tech investments by 147% in 2024 and has already spent nearly ₦70 billion ($48.4 million) this year. FITC notes that fraud is shifting from a volume issue to a value game, where criminals target fewer but higher-value accounts.
Yet it is not only Access Bank feeling the impact. Across the banking sectors of many countries, fraud and evolving cybersecurity measures remain a constant push and pull. In August, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mandated all licenced players in its payments ecosystem to adopt the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard by October 31, 2025. The standardisation will enable financial service providers to capture more detailed, harmonised transaction information, which could support stronger compliance checks, fraud monitoring, and analytics.
Fellow tier-1 banks UBA and GTCO fared better, reporting ₦288 million ($199,000) and ₦225 million ($155,500) in fraud losses, respectively, during the same period. If anything, as digital systems improve, Nigerian banks continue to face evolving threats that test the resilience of their security measures.
