Nigerian banks will now verify fraud-linked mobile numbers under new CBN–NCC agreement
Nigeria’s Central Bank and the Nigerian Communications Commission signed a formal agreement on Monday that gives banks real-time access to telecom data, a move designed to close one of the most exploited gaps in the country’s digital payments system.
Nigeria’s Central Bank and the Nigerian Communications Commission signed a formal agreement on Monday that gives banks real-time access to telecom data, a move designed to close one of the most exploited gaps in the country’s digital payments system.
At the centre of the Memorandum of Understanding is a data-sharing called the Telecom Identity Risk Management System (TIRMS), which will allow financial institutions to check whether a mobile number linked to a transaction has been recently swapped, recycled, flagged for suspicious activity, or gone inactive, before a payment clears.
The move is a direct attempt to address the identity layer in Nigeria’s financial fraud problem, which fell 51% to ₦25.85 billion ($18.7 million) in 2025, according to Nigerian Interbank Settlement Systems (NIBSS). Several fraud incidents involve SIM swaps and compromised phone numbers used to hijack accounts and bypass authentication. Until now, banks have had no reliable way to verify the status of a mobile identity in real time.
“Mobile numbers increasingly underpin identity, authentication, and financial access,” said Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman of the NCC, during the MoU signing in Abuja. “Collaboration with the CBN is essential to ensure innovation is matched with strong governance, system stability, and consumer safeguards.”
Financial fraud in Nigeria has evolved into a high-stakes arms race. While banks are deploying more sophisticated tools, losses are rising sharply. Industry data shows reported losses jumped from ₦17.67 billion ($12.80 million) in 2023 to ₦52.26 billion ($37.86 million) in 2024.
Many of these fraud schemes exploit weaknesses in telecom infrastructure, particularly SIM swaps, recycled numbers, and compromised mobile identities. Under the new framework, banks will be able to verify, in near real time, whether a number linked to a transaction has been altered, reassigned, or flagged.
“Across Nigeria, citizens and businesses depend on digital channels to save, pay, and trade,” Olayemi Cardoso, CBN governor, said. “Those channels depend on resilient telecommunications networks, trusted identity systems, and secure data flows.”
The MoU also aims to strengthen the broader payments ecosystem. Both regulators will coordinate on areas such as instant payments, QR-based transactions, and open banking standards to ensure that infrastructure across telecoms and finance can scale reliably.
This is not the first time the CBN and NCC have collaborated. Their joint intervention in June 2025 helped resolve the long-running USSD debt dispute between banks and telecom operators, restoring service stability. But the regulators say the scale and complexity of today’s digital economy require a more formal and enduring framework.
Beyond fraud and payments, consumer protection is another key pillar. The agreement establishes mechanisms for faster resolution of issues that cut across both sectors, such as failed airtime purchases or transaction errors. It also commits both regulators to coordinated public education and stronger complaint-handling systems.
The MoU creates two joint committees: one focused on payment systems and consumer protection, and another on telecom identity risk management. These groups will oversee coordination, resolve operational issues, and track progress.
