Anti-Fraud Efforts: EFCC Meets Fintechs in Kano

By Sola Omoniyi, Lagos

Kano Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has on June 13, 2023, met with representatives of telecommunications and financial technology companies, fintech, as part of efforts to check the increasing incidence of fraudulent withdrawals and use of pre-registered SIM cards to open wallet accounts.

According to the Zonal Commander, Farouq Dogondaji said the impetus for the engagement was the Commission’s concern about a pattern of fraudulent activities which clearly show that fraudsters were gravitating towards Fintechs because of some observed vulnerabilities.

The Head of the Cyber Crime Section of the Kano Command, Musa Bashir Olalekan disclosed that 90% of the cases received by the Command bordered on fraudulent withdrawals which are mostly traced to wallet accounts of fraudsters.

Olalekan further disclosed that most of the fraudsters used pre-registered SIM cards to perpetrate their fraudulent activities which makes it difficult to unmask them during the investigation.

However, the Commission tasked the operators to put in place measures to detect and report suspicious transactions to law enforcement agencies.

Stakeholders represented at the parley were representatives of the major telecommunication companies (MTN, Airtel and 9mobile) and the following financial technology companies: Opay Digital Services, Palmpay, Flutterwave and Kuda Microfinance.