The rate at which Africans use the Internet for cybercrime is alarming and rapidly increasing. Cybercrime affects all countries, but Africa is particularly vulnerable due to inadequate network and security.
An estimate shows that cybercrime costs the global economy $500 billion, as of 2016. A 2021 study by Techshielder, a technology and online security platform, describes Nigeria as the second most notorious country in the world for romance scams, after the Philippines.
If I continue with the types of fraud and the countries that top each list, it won’t be surprising to see an African country on every list, which is very worrisome. For instance, South Africa, after Kenya, is the African country most affected by fraud, draining millions of dollars from the mobile accounts of cellular users worldwide on a daily basis, according to research.
To fight this, the company which claims to specialise in fighting fraud in Africa has recently raised a €20 million (~$23m) Series A to help them improve their game in fighting fraud.
I find that interesting because the company declared that at least half of the €20 million capital injection will be used to combat fraud in Africa. Yes, you read that correctly; over $12 million will be invested in combating mobile fraud in Africa.
While I’m interested in how the company intends to accomplish this, there’s also an indigenous company in Nigeria, Stellas digital bank planning to combat fraud.
Stellas digital’s plans to fix fraud
Since the launch of the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) scheme in 2011, interbank transactions in Nigeria have become much faster, with several experts hailing it as one of the best globally.
Fraudsters have also taken advantage of this, executing faster due to the increased speed. Consequently, Nigeria has lost $13 billion to cybercrime in the last decade and $12 million in the first nine months of 2020.
Because fraud remains a problem for both digital and traditional banks, Stellas digital bank — a microfinance bank founded in 2017 to provide easy access to financial services — has launched a digital bank to “offer banking services with ease.”
What does this mean? The company plans to protect user identities when conducting transactions to prevent identity theft and ensure privacy and security. Read full report here
Source: Techpoint
