Nigeria ended 2025 with 13,117 Bank Verification Numbers on its fraud watchlist, a 38.4% increase from 9,476 a year earlier, as regulators intensified efforts to identify suspicious customers and strengthen controls across the country’s rapidly expanding banking system.
The increase in the BVN fraud watchlist came despite a sharp decline in the value of money lost to fraud during the year. Fraud losses dropped to ₦25.85 billion in 2025 from ₦52.26 billion in 2024, while attempted fraud fell from ₦86.36 billion to ₦37.57 billion, according to figures contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Payments System Vision 2028.
That contrast matters. More BVNs appearing on the watchlist does not necessarily mean Nigeria’s banking system suffered more fraud in 2025. Instead, the data suggests banks and regulators were identifying more potentially problematic identities while losing significantly less money to successful attacks.
Fraud watchlist climbs as banks tighten controls
The 13,117 fraudulent BVNs recorded at the end of 2025 were 3,641 higher than the 9,476 reported at the end of 2024.
However, that difference should be treated as a net increase in the size of the watchlist, rather than 3,641 newly identified fraudsters.
The CBN’s December 2024 Financial Stability Report showed 9,476 fraudulent BVNs on the watchlist at year-end. By June 2025, the figure had already climbed to 13,766, according to the Bank’s subsequent Financial Stability Report.
The year-end 2025 figure of 13,117 was therefore 649 below the June level.
That movement is important because it shows that the watchlist should not be interpreted as a simple cumulative count of every BVN ever reported. Cases can move through monitoring and resolution processes, while regulatory data can also change as institutions update customer records.
The BVN watchlist was created to help financial institutions identify customers connected with confirmed fraudulent activities and reduce their ability to move between banks undetected.
The CBN describes the BVN itself as an industry-wide unique identifier designed to strengthen know-your-customer controls and reduce fraud and credit risk.
Nigeria’s banking network is getting much bigger
The increase in fraud monitoring is happening alongside rapid growth in the number of customers and accounts connected to Nigeria’s financial system.
BVN registrations increased to 67.82 million in 2025 from about 64.40 million a year earlier, adding approximately 3.42 million registrations.
But account growth was considerably faster.
Bank accounts linked to BVNs increased by about 24% to 368.92 million from 297.29 million, while active accounts rose by nearly 9% to 339.26 million.
The numbers illustrate the scale of the system banks now have to monitor.
More customers, mobile applications, accounts, payment terminals and digital transactions create opportunities for financial inclusion and revenue growth for banks and fintech companies. They also increase the number of points that fraud-monitoring systems must protect.
The CBN has increasingly treated security and inclusion as interconnected priorities rather than competing objectives. Its Payments System Vision 2028 places security, trust, interoperability and inclusion among the principles guiding the next phase of Nigeria’s payments infrastructure.
If More BVNs Were Flagged, Why Did Fraud Losses Fall?
The more encouraging number for banks and customers is the decline in actual fraud losses.
Nigeria recorded ₦25.85 billion in fraud losses in 2025, down 50.5% from ₦52.26 billion in 2024.
Attempted fraud fell even faster, declining about 56.5% to ₦37.57 billion from ₦86.36 billion.
The improvement followed an unusually difficult 2024, when a major ₦30 billion internal fraud case helped push industry losses to their highest level during the 2020–2025 period.
Across those six years, attempted fraud reached ₦187.79 billion, while actual losses totalled ₦134.48 billion.
The figures show why fraud prevention has become an increasingly important commercial issue for Nigerian banks.
Fraud creates direct financial losses, but its cost extends further. Banks and payment companies must spend more on transaction monitoring, cybersecurity, identity verification, investigations, dispute resolution and customer compensation.
A significant fraud incident can also damage customer trust and expose an institution to regulatory and reputational risks.
Why Are Thousands of Deceased BVNs Still Showing Up in the Banking System?
The number of BVNs belonging to deceased customers on the watchlist also increased substantially in 2025.
The total rose to 28,754 from 21,118 in 2024, an increase of about 36.2%.
Cleaning up records belonging to deceased customers is particularly important because outdated customer data can create opportunities for identity abuse, account takeover and other forms of financial crime.
As Nigeria pushes more financial activity into digital channels, the quality of the identity infrastructure behind those transactions becomes increasingly important.
A transaction system can move money instantly, but that speed also reduces the time banks have to identify and stop fraudulent payments after they are initiated.
That makes reliable customer identification, real-time monitoring and collaboration between financial institutions more valuable.
CBN is tightening the BVN fraud framework
The regulatory response has continued into 2026.
In March, the CBN amended its regulatory framework for BVN operations and the banking industry watchlist, introducing additional controls around suspected fraudulent transactions, BVN enrolment and access to customer identity data.
Among the changes, financial institutions can temporarily place BVNs linked to suspicious transactions on watchlists while contacting customers for clarification.
The CBN said the measures would strengthen fraud prevention while allowing customers to resolve suspicious transactions before further action.
The changes fit into a broader regulatory strategy.
Payments System Vision 2028, which the CBN formally launched on June 1, 2026, places stronger regulatory oversight, consumer protection and payment security at the centre of Nigeria’s next phase of financial technology development.
Can Nigeria Scale Digital Banking Without Scaling Fraud?
The 38.4% increase in fraudulent BVNs should therefore be read alongside two other developments: Nigeria’s banking network expanded rapidly, while actual fraud losses declined sharply.
That combination suggests the sector improved parts of its detection and prevention architecture in 2025, although ₦25.85 billion in annual fraud losses remains substantial.
The challenge will grow as financial inclusion deepens.
Nigeria’s banks and fintech companies are connecting more consumers, merchants and businesses to digital financial services. Each additional account expands the commercial opportunity, but also increases the volume of identities and transactions that institutions must authenticate and monitor.
For the banking industry, the next test is not simply whether the fraud watchlist keeps growing or shrinking.
It is whether banks can expand the digital financial system while reducing successful fraud, resolving legitimate customer cases quickly and preventing compromised identities from moving freely across institutions.
That will determine whether Nigeria’s increasingly digital banking system can scale without allowing fraud risk to scale with it.