A high percentage of Nigerians make use of the automated teller machines (ATMs) compare to their counterparts in Ghana and U.K., a survey by the Computer Warehouse Group Plc has revealed.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Group, Mr. James Agada who shared the outcome of the survey, said the average ATM in Nigeria dispenses thrice the number of notes in Ghana and ten times the number of notes in U.K.
Agada who spoke at a workshop in Lagos organised by the CWG Academy, a subsidiary of the Group, said “By accepted proportion, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria, we should have at least 60 ATMs installed but only 15,000 ATMs are available to serve the teeming population. The number of people with the ATM cards keeps increasing by the day. However, despite the shortfall in ATMs, Nigeria still ranks high in ATM usage.”
Agada who admitted that ATMs come down with some issues, however, said the problems are overstated. “The issue we have with the ATM is that we don’t have enough and the few around are overwhelmed.”
The CWG boss, who spoke against the background of ATM related fraud in the country, said it is not peculiar to the Nigeria. “As far as ATM security is concerned, Nigeria is more secured compared to places like U.S.A. or U.K. In Nigeria we’ve many measures being deployed to curb the problem of ATM-related fraud. We’ve PIN shield, security cameras, mirrors, encryption technology, anti-phishing devices fixed on the ATM. And we’re not resting on our oars.”
The ICT expert, who emphasised that no technology is completely impregnable, observed that: “There’s no where you do transactions where there are no fraud going on. You will recall that the Central Bank of Bangladesh was scammed and lost $80million to fraud which has gone untraced till date. So if the system of the Central Bank can be compromised by these fraudsters, no one is spared. The truth is there is no absolute security because these things keep evolving.”