How CBN Aims to Tackle Cyber Fraud Using Local Languages

By Tolulope Oke

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released guidelines to tackle cyber fraud while also tackling shortfalls in user education and practice with Digital Financial Services (DFS).

This is following the recent Risk-Based Cybersecurity Framework and Guidelines for OFIs last month published by CBN  to tackle the rise of cybersecurity attacks against financial institutions.

CBN in its guidelines titled ‘Exposure Draft on Digital Financial Services Awareness Guidelines’ suggested all payment service institutions subject to its regulation, including deposit money banks (DMBs), merchant banks, Other Financial Institutions (OFIs), Payment Service Banks (PSBs), and others, to improve their fraud prevention and risk management capabilities by disseminating fraud prevention messages and advice to consumers using local language audio and virtual communication channels.

The central bank instructed the banks to monitor fraud reports in order to spot developing fraud issues and educate their clients on how to secure their funds.

Central bank observed that DFS has the ability to increase the people of Nigeria’s access to financial services and promote innovation in the financial services sector.

The proposed standards provide forth a set of values and requirements that financial service providers must incorporate into the delivery of DFS in order to guarantee client awareness, fair treatment, and successful outcomes.

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The guideline also aims to establish Digital Financial Literacy (DFL) standards for Digital Financial Services Providers (DFSP), align product development, promotion, and consumer awareness of DFS among DFSP, enhance transparency and proper disclosure on DFS, and provide for the creation of consumer education and financial literacy materials on DFS.

The guidelines also required financial institutions and payment service providers to disclose information on consumer complaint channels, resolutions, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in product enrollment materials and to ensure that agents and staff who handle complaints receive regular training. These requirements further provided for consumer awareness and access to redress and complaints handling.