About 87.5% of Nigerian fintech firms now deploy synthetic intelligence (AI) for fraud detection, highlighting how threat administration considerations are shaping expertise adoption throughout the nation’s fast-growing digital finance ecosystem.
That is in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Fintech Report 2025, revealed on Monday underneath its Coverage Perception Sequence, based mostly on a nationwide ecosystem survey, a closed-door stakeholder workshop held in June 2025, and the October 2025 CBN Fintech Roundtable.
The report exhibits that fraud detection is essentially the most dominant AI use case amongst Nigerian fintechs, far outpacing different functions resembling customer service and credit score evaluation.
What does the report say
Past fraud detection at 87.5%, about 62.5% of respondents stated they use AI-powered chatbots for customer service, whereas 37.5% deploy AI for credit score scoring and threat modelling.
One other 37.5% apply AI to customer onboarding and know-your-customer processes. Solely 12.5% of surveyed corporations reported that they aren’t at the moment utilizing AI in any respect.
The report learn, “AI is extensively adopted in Nigerian fintech, primarily for threat administration and operational effectivity. “Fraud detection” is the commonest use case by a major margin, employed by 87.5% of firms. This underscores the severity of the fraud problem, which was described within the closed-door stakeholder workshop as a “large challenge within the trade”. Different key makes use of embrace “Chatbots/customer service” (62.5%), “Credit score scoring/threat modelling” (37.5%) and “Buyer onboarding/KYC” (37.5%).”
In response to the CBN, this sample displays each the dimensions of digital fraud challenges confronting Nigeria’s monetary system and the rising reliance on data-driven instruments as fintech providers grow to be extra embedded in funds, lending, and remittances.
Fintech progress collides with integrity considerations
The AI findings sit inside a broader evaluation of Nigeria’s fintech enlargement.
- The report notes that the nation processed near 11 billion real-time fee transactions in 2024, greater than double the quantity recorded in 2022, inserting Nigeria among the many world’s most lively on the spot fee markets.
- Nevertheless, the CBN warned that fast digitisation has expanded the system’s threat floor.
Fraud, weak controls at some fast-scaling corporations, and cross-border monetary crime stay persistent considerations, at the same time as Nigeria has strengthened anti-money laundering supervision, tightened KYC requirements, and exited the Monetary Motion Activity Pressure gray record.
Business urge for food for accountable AI
Regardless of the heavy concentrate on fraud management, fintech operators signalled robust curiosity in scaling AI extra broadly underneath clearer regulatory steerage.
About 62.5% of respondents stated they’re very excited about collaborating in an AI-focused regulatory sandbox.
In the meantime, 75% prioritised moral and clear use of AI in credit score and threat choices, in addition to honest and inclusive entry to AI instruments and knowledge.
The report stresses that as AI programs transfer from experimental instruments to core parts of monetary providers, governance and supervisory studying should evolve alongside trade adoption.
Boundaries to scaling AI adoption
Fintechs additionally recognized clear constraints to deeper AI deployment. Restricted entry to technical expertise and lack of regulatory readability had been every cited by 37.5% of corporations as the largest obstacles.
As well as, 50% of respondents stated entry to high-quality knowledge or infrastructure can be essentially the most vital assist for scaling AI use, underscoring the significance of digital public infrastructure resembling interoperable identification programs and dependable data-sharing frameworks.
Compliance prices and regulatory friction
Past AI, the survey highlighted broader pressures inside the fintech ecosystem.
About 87.5% of respondents stated the price of assembly regulatory and threat necessities considerably impacts their potential to innovate.
- On the identical time, 62.5% reported that regulatory timelines materially delay product launches, whereas greater than one-third stated it takes over 12 months to carry a brand new product to market as a result of approval and compliance bottlenecks.
- Perceptions of regulation stay divided. Precisely 50% of respondents described the regulatory setting as enabling, whereas the opposite 50% seen it as restrictive, citing delays, unclear steerage, and inconsistent rule utility.
Collaboration stays robust regardless of challenges
Regardless of these frictions, the report discovered robust willingness amongst fintech corporations to have interaction regulators extra carefully. 100% of respondents expressed readiness to collaborate by means of coverage pilots, regulatory sandboxes, or structured working teams.
The CBN stated these insights are shaping its coverage priorities, together with innovation-friendly regulation, expanded supervisory expertise, shared compliance utilities, and deeper collaboration on AI governance, fraud intelligence, and digital identification infrastructure.
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