Moruf Oseni’s Wema Bank incurred N8.067 billion in court cases as of September 2023 and also lost N239.920 million to fraud and burglary in the nine-month to September 2023.
This is according to the bank’s financial statement recently released to the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX).
However, the litigation claims represent only 3.2 percent from N8.331 billion reported in December 2022.
Similarly, the fraud and burglary losses incurred by Wema Bank in the third quarter of 2023 represented a 73 percent reduction from a loss totaling N880.154 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2022.
This means that Wema Bank succeeded in cutting down its fraud cases within the period. Analysts attribute it to increased technology expenditure, which rose by 31 percent from N1.421 billion in September 2022 to N1.856 billion by September 2023.
“Investment in technology is critical for banks because they are targeted by fraudsters who have cliques all over the world. If you do not spend in technology, you will spend time in courts with depositors,” said a Lagos-based IT expert, Mr Tobe Iloani.
According to Punch Newspaper, eight Nigerian banks lost N1.9 billion to fraudsters in 2020 during the peak of Covid-19.
The cases ranged from impersonation, outright theft, and Automated Teller Machine fraud to Internet bank fraud and cheque theft.
Wema Bank Refused To Speak
Wema Bank’s spokesperson, Ms Mabel Adeteye, did not respond to Economy Post‘s inquiries via WhatsApp messages seeking clarifications on the bank’s fraud issues before press time.
