The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen collaboration on digital fraud prevention, consumer protection and the stability of Nigeria’s digital economy, as electronic fraud continues to rise alongside digital payments.

Industry data shows the scale of the problem. According to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, fraud losses in the banking sector rose to over ₦17 billion in recent years, driven largely by mobile and online channels. Analysts say SIM swap fraud, account takeovers and identity compromise remain among the fastest-growing threats, exploiting the link between telecom services and financial accounts.

At the signing ceremony, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso described the agreement as a response to the growing overlap between financial services and telecommunications, noting that millions of Nigerians now rely on digital platforms for payments, savings and business transactions.

“Across Nigeria, citizens and businesses now rely on digital channels to save, pay, trade and build their livelihoods,” he said, adding that the reliability of these services depends on secure telecom networks and trusted data flows.

The partnership comes amid rapid growth in digital transactions, with instant payments, mobile banking and USSD services expanding financial access, but also increasing exposure to fraud risks. Regulators say the absence of real-time coordination between telecom operators and financial institutions has created gaps that fraudsters continue to exploit.

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Cardoso said the framework would strengthen joint responses to fraud and improve consumer protection, noting that increasingly sophisticated schemes now take advantage of delays in detecting SIM swaps and recycled numbers. He added that addressing such risks requires shared intelligence, clearer escalation processes, and stronger operational readiness across regulated institutions.

A key component of the agreement is the introduction of a Telecom Identity Risk Management Portal, a data-sharing platform that will track mobile number activity, including SIM swaps, recycled lines and flagged numbers.

The platform is expected to give banks and other financial institutions real-time visibility into telecom-related changes tied to customer accounts. This means that suspicious activities such as sudden SIM replacement or number reassignment can be detected earlier, reducing the window in which fraudsters can gain access to funds.

According to NCC Executive Vice Chairman Aminu Maida, the system will enable financial institutions to identify and block high-risk transactions linked to compromised phone numbers before losses occur.

The initiative directly targets a structural weakness in Nigeria’s digital finance ecosystem, where mobile numbers function as primary identifiers for account access, transaction alerts and authentication processes.

Beyond fraud prevention, the MoU is also expected to improve confidence in digital financial services. By tightening verification processes and enabling faster response to customer complaints, regulators say the framework will strengthen trust in electronic payments at a time when adoption is accelerating.

The agreement builds on earlier collaboration between the two regulators, including efforts to resolve the USSD debt dispute between banks and telecom operators, which had threatened service continuity.

It also extends to broader financial system stability, covering areas such as instant payments, QR-based transactions and open banking frameworks. With increasing integration through APIs and digital platforms, both regulators said coordinated oversight is necessary to manage emerging risks that cut across sectors.

For the financial system, the partnership signals a shift toward more integrated regulation, where telecom and banking data are used together to detect threats in real time. For consumers, it is expected to reduce exposure to common fraud schemes and improve the speed of resolution when incidents occur.

Meiza Nigeria