The odds of a debit card getting trapped in an automated teller machine (ATM) and N1.3 million vanishing moments later might seem slim, but for Regina Agbo, an Abuja resident, this exact amount left her Zenith Bank account under the same circumstance in March 2023.

Agbo had gone to an EcoBank ATM stand to transfer funds from her salary account, but the machine had other plans. After rejecting her card on the first try, it trapped her card on the second try and would not give it back.

She lingered at the ATM, unsure if the issue was technical or network-related. A colleague happened to pass by and offered her their debit card to test the machine but it was rejected too. The glitch seemed harmless until it didn’t.

With daylight fading, she approached a security officer at the Ecobank branch to ask if the ATM had retained her card. She said the security man inserted his own card and it worked just fine. He then assured her that her card was safe and urged her to go home.

“On my way to the office, I attempted to block my card via Zenith Bank’s USSD code but it didn’t work. However, as soon as I walked into the office, debit alerts started flooding in, the first being N500,000. I screamed. I couldn’t believe it,” she recalled.

“I rushed back to the bank that evening, pregnant with questions but the bank had no answer. The security official said there was nothing they could do that night and told me to return the next day. The following day, the staff responsible for ATM admitted they’d heard about her issue but found no card when they checked the machine.”

Agbo told FIJ that when she asked for CCTV footage, bureaucracy kicked in. According to her, the bank requested a police report and a court order, which she would have presented had the police not extorted her.

Today, two years after the incident and after several efforts, including media publications to get the money back, Agbo has still not given up on her money but is leaving everything in God’s hands.

A GROWING CRISIS

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that Nigeria processed approximately 11.64 billion web payment transactions in the first six months of 2024 alone, with web payments accounting for 52.7% of all transaction volume across platforms. A report shows that the total volume of electronic payment transactions processed by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) in 2024 reached about 11.2 billion transactions for the full year. But in the same year, financial institutions in Nigeria lost N52.26 billion to fraud due to system vulnerabilities at some institutions, according to the latest NIBSS report. This represents a significant N34.59 billion increase when compared to the N17.67 billion recorded in 2023.

To contextualise this, in 2023, 80,658 unique customers fell victim to fraud. This figure is slightly lower than the 84,130 customers recorded in 2022. NIBSS says fraud activity and actual losses peaked in the second and third quarter of 2024, before declining in the last three months. Its report noted that individuals aged 40 and above continued to be the primary targets for fraudsters in 2023, consistent with previous years.

LEAVING IT TO GOD

For Walter Ikani, a health worker in Calabar, August 7, 2023, started like any other day until a strange phone call cracked it open.

The call came from an unknown number. He told FIJ that when he answered, he was met with a robotic voice rattling off numbers like a code. He could not make sense of the call and so ended it. But moments later, his phone buzzed non-stop. One alert. Then another. Then nine more. By the time the flurry stopped, N1.6 million had vanished from his GTBank account.

“I didn’t know what was happening. I just stared at the alerts. Eleven of them. All pointing to SportyBet, and I neither gamble nor have an account with them,” he told FIJ.

Just six days earlier, Ikani had applied for a new ATM card. Next, his account was emptied. Even worse, he said, GT Bank told him via email that the transaction was consummated using his primary card details and, as such, could not refund his money.

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After several visits to the bank which further left him confused, Ikani stopped bothering himself.

DEBITED TWICE DURING COVID-19 FOR NOTHING

Mayowa Jimoh’s phone buzzed on a quiet Sunday afternoon in March 2020. A text from Access Bank lit up his screen. But instead of routine updates or promo spam, it was an upsetting debit alert followed by another. Both for N50,000.

It was the eve of Nigeria’s first COVID-19 lockdown. Across Lagos, families were bracing themselves for what would become 34 days of uncertainty, and every naira mattered. For Jimoh, that money was important but an unauthorised transaction swept it away in an instant.

Jimoh was shocked after the deductions for two reasons. First, he had not initiated a transaction. Second, he had never used Access Bank’s mobile banking platform, only the app. So, how did N100,000 find its way out of his account? To date, Jimoh never got his money back. He simply just accepted the ill-fated incident as his reality.

“I hadn’t shared my pin with anyone, and I wasn’t notified of anything else except the debits. I was at home the entire time. It didn’t make sense,” Jimoh told FIJ.

MYSTERIOUS DEBITS OF N2m

On June 25, 2024, Bamidele Dayo, a Nigerian student in the United Kingdom, transferred N10,000 from his United Bank for Africa (UBA) account to another account. One minute later, he got a series of strange debit alerts on his phone: N500,000 in four places and an extra N272,000!

That was how Dayo lost N2.272 million. But when he contacted UBA, their forensic investigation did not show how his money got stolen.

Dayo, who is studying to get a master’s degree, told FIJ that he got an email notification that another phone had been attached to his UBA app. He found this rather shocking as he had not handed his phone or account details to a third party.

“I could log in, yet someone somewhere in Nigeria could still log in on the same mobile app. I wondered how two mobile devices could be attached to one account without me getting an OTP (one-time password),” Dayo told FIJ.

“UBA came up with a forensic report, showing clearly that the app that was used to move that money was excluded from their forensic investigation, which means they could not trace the app that was newly attached to the account that was used to move the money.”

PUNISHED WITHOUT A TRIAL

When Denayin Michael Oluwaseun walked into a First City Monument Bank (FCMB) branch in 2021, all he wanted was a simple name correction. What he got instead was a mystery accusation and a bank account locked away.

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He had opened the FCMB account back in 2017 but stopped using it after spotting a mistake in how his name was captured. The bank had told him he needed an affidavit and a newspaper notice to make things right, and that’s exactly what he came with. But instead of an update, he got a shock.

“The moment I submitted the documents, the staff told me my account was linked to a fraud case. They claimed a First Bank customer named Edet Franka accused me of receiving over N200,000 fraudulently from her account on January 22, 2019,” he told FIJ.

Oluwaseun was stunned. Not only was he unaware of any such transaction, but his bank statement also showed no trace of it. He had never received that money.

In 2022, a customer care representative told him that if he didn’t clear the alleged debt, the Central Bank of Nigeria would blacklist his BVN and he wouldn’t be able to open a bank account anywhere in Nigeria.

WHY FAILURES HAPPEN AND WHAT CAN BE DONE

There are several reasons as to why banking issues, the likes of which have been highlighted in this report, happen. A conspicuous factor is the lack of total adoption of digital public infrastructure. Nigeria has yet to fully adopt DPI.

This is why Jonathan Osagie, a banker, says that the real culprit behind Nigeria’s banking frustrations isn’t the banks but the government.

“All banks in Nigeria operate under the watchful eye of the Central Bank. We follow strict rules to avoid sanctions. So, when customers experience failed transactions or sluggish services, the blame shouldn’t land solely on us. The government has a hand in it,” he said.

According to Osagie, many digital tools and systems used by banks are long overdue for an upgrade, but the process of getting replacements is often bogged down by bureaucracy and neglect.

“Sometimes we submit requests for critical infrastructure — servers, routers, network equipment — but if those aren’t approved or supplied, we’re forced to work with outdated systems. It’s like running a marathon with worn-out shoes,” he noted.

Another reason incidents like this persist, often without known consequences for banks, lies in how regulatory sanctions are enforced. In 2018, the CBN announced that financial institutions would be fined N10,000 for every failed instant payment transaction not reversed within 24 hours of a customer’s complaint. Yet, the problem continued.

More recently, in 2024, the CBN issued a stronger directive, warning commercial banks, payment service providers, and other financial institutions against delays in resolving customer complaints.

As reported by BusinessDay, the new regulation mandates a daily fine of N100,000 for each complaint not resolved within 72 hours, especially those related to ATM issues. Despite these measures, such problems remain commonplace.

FIJ contacted the NIBSS for comments on the matter several times and they promised to get back but never did.

FIJ also contacted the CBN for comments on this matter. The CBN gave no response at press time.

This report was produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.