Dr. David Isiavwe, President of ISSAN, who spoke on behalf of the association, stated that as the Covid-19 pandemic is gradually easing out, organisations are now settling for hybrid way of working and providing services for customers while being mindful of the enlarged cyber threat. He said: “What we see on the horizon is that Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are becoming alarming; Ransomwares attacks are not relenting. There are more phishing and password targeted attacks. Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks remain a growing problem. The loss globally is colossal.

“In Africa, Nigeria is expected to lead in terms of estimated loss due to our size. There is therefore the urgent need to brainstorm on how to keep payment systems platforms safer.”

In his keynote address at the conference, Musa Jimoh, Director, Payment System Management Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), commended the activities of ISSAN at enhancing a safer and secured payment ecosystem and stressed that the apex bank is committed to initiatives that would promote and enhance payment system security to check cyber fraud.

He maintained that the financial sector cannot afford to fail as the payment system is vital to the functioning of any economic system.

He explained: “Data security is important for customers and a tool for financial inclusion. Banks are the custodian of customers’ information based on trust and should therefore put structures in place to prevent breach and information theft.  They should not compromise customers’ credentials as it would give cyber criminals access to defraud them.”