The United Bank for Africa has called for sustained vigilance and a strong fraud-prevention culture as it rounded off the 2025 Fraud Awareness Week.

This call was made at the grand finale of the week-long activities on Friday, held at the UBA House in Lagos and themed “Combating Fraud-Risk & Cybertheft in Digital Banking.”

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, global champion of the week, the Occupational Fraud 2024: A Report to the Nations, organisations lose an estimated five per cent of their revenue annually due to fraud. Fraud takes many shapes and forms, among them corporate fraud, consumer fraud, tax fraud, identity theft, and many others.

The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of UBA, Oliver Alawuba, who was represented by the Executive Director, Finance & Risk Management, Ugochukwu Nwaghodoh, in his opening remarks, said that fraud prevention was not a one-off event but a culture.

“It strengthens trust and protects customers. This year’s activities have all deepened and deterred fraud at every customer touch point. As we close this week, let us uphold UBA’s integrity across the countries of operations. Let us continue to lead the industry. Stay alert, stay safe, and let us stop fraud together.”

The acting Chief Internal Auditor of UBA, Kayode Ajayi, said, “The fight against fraud in UBA is progressive, and it is a good fight. I want to encourage all of us to join the fight. One of the challenges we have in Nigeria is ownership. We have decided to own the fight. We have the will and the resources to own the fight, but we cannot do it alone.

“Fraud doesn’t respect your degree or education. Fraud is a trend, AI is here, but social psychology is the same. Don’t allow yourself to be defrauded.”

The keynote speaker, Prof Godwin Oyedokun, stressed that fraud is never accidental, describing it as planned. To individuals, he said, “When fraudsters want to get to you, you need to be careful of the people around you. You must be more ready than the fraudster. Perception of detection is the greatest deterrent to fraud. Fraud prevention is better than fraud detection.”

He also urged banks to “Make sure your processes are secure. Take customer protection as one of your strategies and prioritise fraud reporting.”

During a panel session, panellist Adebayo Adebeshin noted that “every innovation has been a trade-off between convenience and security,” adding that knowledge was no longer a unique leverage to curb fraud, as both sides of the divide are now on the same knowledge level.”

Another panellist, Fiyinfolu Okedare, emphasised customer empowerment, stating, “We need to continue customer awareness as they are the first layer of security for the bank. We need to move them away from the victim mentality to defenders. Teach them how to detect phishing emails. If they are able to do that, then they can stop fraud.

“Customer education is one of the least leveraged fraud detection platforms that is being used. It is only a well-educated customer who can stop social engineering. When it comes to fraud prevention, we must move away from theory to practice.”

Bright Anyanwu, another contributor, warned that increased information sharing has heightened fraud risks. He further said, “Where many banks are innovating today is in the area of products and compliance, don’t know about until it is almost finished.

“A good product is almost as good as the security of the product. Innovation is important, but we must also look at the security around it. Do some custom testing around it. It should be security by design.”