There is a consensus among industry experts that the twin problems of e-fraud and exorbitant charges hinder financial inclusion in Nigeria and across West Africa. On a Sunday morning in March, Emmanuella Olofu, a journalist based in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, boarded a taxi from her residence in the Lugbe area to church. Upon arriving at her destination, Ms Olofu grabbed her handbag and picked up her mobile phone to log onto her mobile banking application to pay the taxi driver.
“I received a message that I had insufficient balance in my account,” Emmanuel said, recalling how she shockingly realised that her savings had been creamed off. Desperate to sort out the waiting driver, she reached out to a friend who sent N5,000 into the same bank account. Again, the money vanished within seconds after it landed. Ms Olofu’s plight is one of the many complaints about fraudulent electronic banking transactions Nigerians are grappling with