The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has urged Nigerian banks, Moniepoint, OPay and other fintechs and financial institutions to shore up their defences against cybersecurity and third-party technology risks amid widespread vulnerabilities.
The Director of the Payments System Supervision Department of the CBN and Chairperson of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum, Rakiya Yusuf, disclosed this on Wednesday at the 19th Annual Banking and Finance Conference of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Abuja.
Speaking during a session titled, “Navigating Cyber and Systemic Risks in the AI-Driven Future of Banking: Implications for Financial Stability and Business Resilience,” Yusuf stressed that the growing reliance of financial institutions on fintechs, payment service providers, cloud operators and other technology vendors had created new channels for cyber and systemic risks.
She warned that a weakness in a bank, fintech, payment service provider or technology vendor could spread rapidly across interconnected institutions, creating what she described as a “one-fire” effect capable of destabilising the entire financial system.
According to her, Nigeria’s financial institutions must therefore move beyond securing their internal systems to strengthening safeguards across the wider financial ecosystem.
“Resilience is not just about preventing an incident. It is about the ability to continue delivering critical services during disruption and to recover quickly afterwards,” she stated.
