To save the citizens from further losing their hard-earned money after their phones might have been stolen, banks, especially the Central Bank of Nigeria, have been asked to do something about the ugly development.
An economist and former CBN staff member, Prof. Jonathan Aremu, said: “I don’t think this is a serious problem because the Central Bank of Nigeria recognises electronic banking. What the CBN should do is to see if that policy is inclusive enough to accommodate issues that affect this kind of fraud and go back to adjust it. It is only when there is a policy and when there are provisions for infractions that you can punish people.
“What CBN as a managing authority needs to do is to check electronic banking policy issues and make sure that they address every issue connecting to electronic banking, including fraudulent practices, and try to plug the loopholes. They should make the responsibilities of the banks and the customers to be clear, so that if the commercial banks have a responsibility which they do not put in place, then, they can be called to question. Customers who have accounts also should have responsibilities. There must be a way of cautioning any infraction arising from using the electronic banking system.”
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Dr. Austin Nweze of Lagos Business School noted that cases of phone theft and hacking into victims’ bank accounts is why many people don’t like doing online banking. “But do we stop going to war because people die when they go to war? Nations must fight wars and the same applies to individuals. We cannot because of these criminal elements refuse to embrace new technologies. This has been an issue all over the world and they have not been able to find a final solution.
“In the 90s or early 2000, the German government were looking for two Nigerians who broke into a German bank and stole millions of Deutschmark. They placed a ransom on the hoodlums’ heads. The German government said they were not looking for the robbers to kill or send them to prison but to know how they were able to carry out the crime so that they could provide a solution to it. That is the way to go.
“As the banks notice all of these, they should begin to investigate to know the loopholes and come up with another technology to prevent it. At the banks’ end, they could ask for additional information about the customer’s mother’s maiden name and stuffs like that before any transaction is completed. These are some of the questions asked when you want to open an email. Banks should begin to introduce measures to help customers to have easier access to transact with them. The measures should not cause problems for customers, otherswise, it will affect the whole system. Anywhere in the world where crimes happen, what you need to do is to find out what is going wrong.”
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