Headline

Bank Customers Lose N2.72bn To Fraudsters – Report

Published

3 years ago

January 29, 2023

A report by FITC has revealed that bank customers in Nigeria lost a total of N2.72bn to fraud in the first and second quarters of 2022.

It was also disclosed that there was a total of 67,878 cases of fraud recorded within this period.

This was according to the second quarter report obtained by our correspondent from the website of FITC.

FITC’s institutional members are members of the Nigerian Banker’s Committee, which comprises the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation and all liscensed banks in Nigeria.

The data, however, showed a decline in the number of fraud cases across the banks compared to the first quarter of 2022.

According to the report, a total of 27,356 incidents of fraud and forgeries were reported in Q2, compared to 40,522 reported cases in the first quarter of 2022, representing a 32.49 per cent decrease between within the periods.

The total sum reported to be involved in fraud cases during the period also decreased by 40.05 per cent from N14.65bn in Q1 2022 to N8.78bn in Q2 2022.

Likewise, for the total amount lost due to fraud incidences, there was a slight decrease of 23.66 per cent from N1.54bn in the first quarter of 2022 to N1.17bn in the second quarter of 2022.

The report showed that mobile fraud which includes fraud activities through USSD transactions had the highest occurrence followed by computer/web fraud and POS fraud.

The report read in part, “Evaluating the total amount lost to frauds in Q2 2022 reveals that Mobile Fraud accounts for 38.18 per cent at N449m loss, followed by Miscellaneous & other types of fraud accounting for 32.19 per cent (N379m) and Suppression of Entries at 11.02 per cent (N129.64m).

“A closer look at the unusual amount recorded under the miscellaneous fraud revealed that the fraud was carried out via E-naira for which the banks were liable.

“With regards to the returns by payment channel, the analysis reveals that there was a decrease in the amount lost to fraud via the web, ATM and PoS channels.”

“The amount lost via the web channel decreased considerably from N1.07bn to N98.4m while the amount lost via the ATM channel decreased from N43m to N5.9m. On the other hand, an increase was noted in the amount lost via the bank branch, mobile fraud channels, from N103.45m to N618.24m (497.56 per cent) and N270.92m to N449.03 million (65.74 per cent).”

The FITC further said it was necessary for banks to further strengthen their internal control measures for improved efficiency in pre-empting fraud activities and ultimate prevention of fraud.

Recently it was reported that at least 6,047 Bank Verification Numbers of bank customers have been placed under the CBN watch-list for fraudulent transactions.

According to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, Nigeria has one of the most advanced electronic payment capabilities in the world. It said the increase in transaction processing speed and available channels had also created an avenue for fraudulent transactions to thrive.

In its ‘NIBSS Insight: Fraud in the Nigeria Financial Services’ report, it said, “Statistically, even a one per cent successful fraud rate would result in 100,000 successful fraudulent transactions daily.

“This would directly impact customer’s faith in the entire system and could significantly impact our financial inclusion drive as well as the CBN cashless policy.”
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Headline

FULL LIST: Ghana Releases Identities Of Helicopter Crash Victims

Published

4 hours ago

August 7, 2025

Editor

The Ghanaian Government has released the names of individuals who died in Wednesday morning’s military helicopter crash.

The crash involved a Z-9 helicopter belonging to the Ghana Armed Forces, which lost contact during a flight from Accra, the capital, to Obuasi, a gold-mining town in the south, where the crew headed for an official engagement.

In a post via its official X handle on Wednesday, the Ghana Armed Forces said the victims comprise eight people.

The names and portfolios of the victims are listed below:

1. Edward Omane Boamah – Minister for Defence

2. ⁠Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed – Minister for Environment, Science and Technology

3. Muniru Mohammed – Acting deputy, National Security Coordinator and former Minister for Food and Agriculture

4. Samuel Sarpong – Vice- Chairman, National Democratic Congress

5. ⁠Samuel Aboagye – Former parliamentary candidate

6. Peter Baafemi Anala – ⁠Squadron leader

7. ⁠Manaen Twum Ampadu – Flying officer

8. ⁠Ernest Addo – Sergeant

Following the sad development, Ghanaian President John Mahama described the incident as a national tragedy and suspended activities upon receiving the news.

He also directed that flags fly at half-mast to honour the memory of the victims.

Headline

Bodies Of Helicopter Crash Victims Arrive In Accra

Published

5 hours ago

August 7, 2025

Editor

The Ghana Armed Forces on Wednesday confirmed the arrival in Accra of the remains of the victims of the Z-9 military helicopter crash, which claimed the lives of eight personnel.

It stated that the victims’ bodies were transported from the crash site aboard a Ghana Air Force Casa aircraft and received at the Air Force Base in Accra on August 6, 2025.

According to a statement issued by the Acting Director General, Public Relations, Ghana Navy, Captain Veronica Arhin, government officials, military personnel, and sympathisers led by the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Julius Debrah, were present to receive the bodies.

The statement said the remains have since been deposited at the 37 Military Hospital for preservation and preparations for burial.

It noted that all eight bodies were recovered from the crash site located in the Sikaman area, near Adansi Akrofuom in Ghana’s Ashanti Region.

The Ghana Armed Forces extended its appreciation to the people of Sikaman and the security services for their support during the recovery operations.

“The Deputy Minister for Defence, Hon. Brogya Genfi, and the Military High Command extend their deepest condolences to the families in this difficult national tragedy,” the statement added.

Headline

Hiroshima Marks 80 Years As US-Russia Nuclear Tensions Rise

Published

16 hours ago

August 7, 2025

Editor

Japan marked 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday with a ceremony reminding the world of the horrors unleashed, as sabre-rattling between the United States and Russia keeps the nuclear “Doomsday Clock” close to midnight.

A silent prayer was held at 8:15 am (2315 GMT), the moment when US aircraft Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” over the western Japanese city on August 6, 1945.

On a sweltering morning, hundreds of black-clad officials, students and survivors laid flowers at the memorial cenotaph, with the ruins of a domed building in the background, a stark reminder of the horrors that unfolded.

In a speech, Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned of “an accelerating trend toward military buildup around the world”, against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the chaos in the Middle East.

“These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,” he said.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it was Japan’s mission “to take the lead… toward a world without nuclear weapons”.

The final death toll of the Hiroshima attack would hit around 140,000 people, killed not just by the colossal blast and the ball of fire, but also later by the radiation.

Three days after “Little Boy”, on August 9, another atomic bomb killed 74,000 people in Nagasaki. Imperial Japan surrendered on August 15, bringing an end to World War II.

Today, Hiroshima is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million but the attacks live on in the memories of many.

On the eve of the ceremony, people began lining up to pay their respects to the victims in front of the cenotaph.

Before dawn on Wednesday, families who lost loved ones in the attack also came to pray.

Yoshie Yokoyama, 96, who arrived in a wheelchair with her grandson, told reporters that her parents and grandparents were bomb victims.

“My grandfather died soon after the bombing, while my father and mother both died after developing cancer. My parents-in-law also died, so my husband couldn’t see them again when he came back from battlefields after the war.

“People are still suffering,” she added.

Wednesday’s ceremony was set to include a record of around 120 countries and regions including, for the first time, Taiwanese and Palestinian representatives.

The United States — which has never formally apologised for the bombings — was represented by its ambassador to Japan. Russia and China were absent.

Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots organisation that last year won the Nobel Peace Prize, is representing the dwindling number of survivors, known as hibakusha.

As of March, there were 99,130 hibakusha, according to the Japanese health ministry, with the average age of 86.

“I want foreign envoys to visit the peace memorial museum and understand what happened,” the group’s co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki told local media ahead of the commemorations.

Pope Leo XIV said in a statement that “in our time of mounting global tensions and conflicts”, Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained “living reminders of the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons”.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “the very weapons that brought such devastation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are once again being treated as tools of coercion”.

– Younger generation –
The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime.

Kunihiko Sakuma, 80, who survived the blasts as a baby, told AFP he was hopeful that there could eventually be a nuclear-free world.

“The younger generation is working hard for that end,” he said ahead of the ceremony.

But in January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock” shifted to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest in its 78-year history.

The clock symbolising humanity’s distance from destruction was last moved to 90 seconds to midnight over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russia and the United States account for around 90 percent of the world’s over 12,000 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

SIPRI warned in June that “a dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging at a time when arms control regimes are severely weakened,” with nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states modernising their arsenals.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said that he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines following an online spat with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.