Wema Bank, a major Nigerian bank, has kicked out and stopped working with seven fintech partners from its payment platform because they were involved in fraud. They lost about ₦685 million (which is almost $595,000) in 2023 because of fraud and fake documents.
To stop this from happening again, they started a campaign against fraud. The bank found out that some of the fintech companies they partnered with were bringing in fake money into certain online wallets.
So, they looked into it and found four fintech companies were involved in the fraud, so they stopped working with them. They also removed three other companies because they were part of the fraud. They are now checking more carefully to make sure their partners are doing things right.
Wema Bank is working hard to have good partnerships and follow the rules set by the Central Bank of Nigeria. They are also teaching customers about fraud so they can spot it themselves. Oluwole Esomojumi, who works at Wema Bank, said they are checking things more often and are determined to stop fraud.
Wema Bank lost a lot of money to fraud last year, just like Access Bank did. But even with this, the number of online transactions in Nigeria went up a lot in the first part of 2024.
The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) said electronic transactions went up by 89% to ₦234 trillion in the first three months of 2024, with more transactions every month.
Companies like OPay and PalmPay also saw more transactions in early 2024, reaching ₦17.2 trillion.