The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), a key financial infrastructure provider regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking to recover ₦4,190,101,636 lost through unauthorized withdrawals following a system glitch.
In the suit, NIBSS named 45 financial institutions as defendants and is requesting the court to impose Post No Debit (PND) restrictions on all accounts that were beneficiaries of the fraudulent transfers.
According to an affidavit sworn by Patience Johnson, a litigation officer with Manifield Solicitors, the glitch occurred on NIBSS’s Instant Payments (NIP) platform on September 6, 2024. The system error allowed customers of the listed banks to initiate unauthorized transfers across multiple accounts, spanning a period from September 6 to September 9, 2024.
The fraudulent activity was detected around 12:30 p.m. on Monday, September 9, during routine weekend settlement reviews. In total, 176 beneficiary accounts were identified across the respondent banks, with NIBSS estimating its total financial exposure from the incident at over ₦13.66 billion.
Initial investigations traced ₦8.15 billion to the first wave of unauthorized transfers. However, further probes—conducted in partnership with regulatory bodies and law enforcement—revealed an additional ₦4.19 billion had been funneled to a second group of beneficiaries within the same banks.
NIBSS stated that despite reaching out to the affected banks to freeze the compromised accounts, the lack of an enforceable court order could result in the irreversible loss of funds. The company emphasized that immediate legal intervention is critical to safeguarding its interests and preventing further dissipation of the stolen funds.
Relying on the CBN’s September 13, 2018, circular on instant inter-bank transfers, NIBSS asserts its authority to block the affected accounts and insists on full cooperation from the banks involved.
The organization is seeking a court order to place PND restrictions on all implicated accounts pending the final determination of the case.
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