In 2023, Nigeria’s financial institutions and fintech companies joined forces to develop a digital fraud prevention platform aimed at tackling the rise in scam attacks plaguing the industry.
Known as Project Radar, the platform built was an important step in safeguarding the integrity of the country’s thriving fintech ecosystem.
One year after its launch, the platform, now renamed Reporta, has successfully strengthened Nigeria’s financial sector in the fight against digital fraud.
Meant to serve as a joint fraud prevention network, the project has gained massive adoption, delivered noticeable impact and proved that collective action is need in securing the nation’s digital finance industry.
With the ever-increasing number of Nigeria’s fintech firms—home to over 217 startups and a sector that attracted nearly 50% of Africa’s total fintech funding between 2019 and mid-2023—the need for standard fraud prevention system has always been important.
Digital financial crimes have become technically advanced, with fraudsters taking advantage of any hole between isolated payment networks.
Reporta was developed as an industry-wide solution to counter these threats and protect millions of Nigerian users who rely on digital payments daily.
Today, Reporta is an independent, voluntary registry that is collectively owned by a group of financial and fintech organisations in Nigeria with board members rotated from various financial institutions.
The platform pulls together country-wide pockets of siloed information on suspicious digital behaviour. It proactively protects businesses from suspicious transactions by leveraging behavioural fingerprints.
Since its inception, Reporta has been accepted by over 25 leading banks, fintech companies, and verification platforms including Sterling Bank, Moniepoint, Busha, First Bank, Unity Bank, Wema Bank, Dojah, Flutterwave, Voyance, Preambly, Remita, Paddy Cover, Globus Bank, Herconomy, Kredi Bank, VFD, and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
The platform reported over 50,000 fraudulent transactions, thereby allowing financial institutions to detect and block suspicious activities faster than ever before.
There are now plans to extend the project to the insurance industry, which is also susceptible to fraud.
Before its introduction, fraud alerts were often shared informally via WhatsApp groups, making real-time detection chaotic and unreliable.
Now, with Reporta’s centralized intelligent database, banks and fintech firms can quickly search for flagged transactions using BVN, account numbers, or phone numbers—resulting in a 70% improvement in fraud detection accuracy.
A fraud analytics officer at a bank acknowledged the platform’s impact. “Before Reporta, fraud reports were scattered and often buried in long chat threads. Now, with a quick search, we can immediately see flagged transactions and take action—saving millions in potential losses.”
Apart from transaction monitoring, the system also gives fraud analysis, which helps banks understand new fraud patterns and tackle risks before they escalate.
According to a fraud and compliance officer at another bank, before Reporta, siloed information didn’t help in getting up to date analytics on new trends people are using.
“Now we can check the dashboard and see these types of data, significantly increasing our fraud detection capabilities.”
The impact is even more pervasive in Nigeria’s fintech companies, which are much younger than the banks.
According to a staff at one of the leading fintech firms, Reporta has opened up access to more important data, enabling them to upgrade their infrastructure.
“Due to better access to crucial data, we can now update our infrastructure to be more secure and can better educate customers on how to protect their accounts.”
Reporta’s impact goes beyond technology—it’s about collaboration. Over the past year, the platform has forged strategic partnerships with financial institutions, security agencies, and regulatory bodies.
These partnerships have led to fraud intelligence sharing across banks and fintechs, improved coordination with law enforcement agencies to track and prosecute fraudsters, and new regulatory standard that aligns with fraud prevention system.
One of the biggest achievements was the hassle-free integration with Nigeria’s top banking networks, giving the ground for coordinated fraud reporting and prevention efforts across multiple financial institutions.
This level of cooperation is very important in the fight against fraudsters, who sometimes take advantage of weak points and update their tactics. With all hands-on deck, fintechs and banks can close security gaps and stay ahead of cybercriminals.
Looking ahead, Reporta is working towards maximizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning to detect fraud patterns before they happen. Instead of relying on manual reporting, AI-powered fraud prevention will analyze transactional behaviours to detect fraud before it occurs, which gives traditional banks and fintechs the edge to proactively prevent losses instead of just reacting after it occurs.
The introduction of predictive analytics will further increase fraud intelligence, which will reduce false positives while legitimate transactions remain hassle-free.
According to Lead project engineer, Wilson Adenuga, this next phase of creativity, stating that AI fraud detection system will improve security for Nigeria’s fintech firms.
Within just one year, Reporta has moved from being a promising idea to an important fraud- prevention weapon used by top banks and fintech firms. Its impact is undeniable with tens of thousands of fraud cases have been identified and blocked, and financial platforms now have a more coordinated and efficient approach to fraud detection.
