No Nigerian ATM card has ever been hacked. Not once. That is the bold claim from AIG Uche Henry Ifeanyi, Chairman of INTERPOL’s African Working Group on Cybercrime.
The statement is already turning heads across Nigeria’s banking and fintech circles.
Ifeanyi made the claim at the Adhere Compliance Frontline Forum in Lagos. The event held at the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel in Victoria Island. Smart Comply, a compliance and risk management firm, organised the forum. It brought together bankers, fintech operators, law enforcement officials, and policy professionals to discuss the real cost of financial crime in Nigeria.
Speaking to the room, Ifeanyi asked a simple question. Did anyone know that Nigeria’s ATM card is the safest in the world? He said there has never been a successful hack of the system itself.
So why do Nigerians still lose money to ATM fraud? According to Ifeanyi, it is almost never because a criminal broke into the card’s technical infrastructure. Instead, the loss usually starts with a person. Someone gets tricked into handing over their PIN, their one time password, or other private details.
In other words, social engineering remains the real weapon. Not hacking. That is how fraudsters get into a Nigerian ATM card, he explained.
SEE ALSO:Nigerian Government Opens Laptop, Smartphone Instalment Credit Scheme: How To Apply
This distinction matters a lot. It shifts the blame away from the card and the banking infrastructure behind it. Instead, it points to the human weak link in the chain: the customer who unknowingly gives away the keys.
Ifeanyi’s credentials give the claim serious weight. INTERPOL appointed him Chairman of the African Heads of Cybercrime Units. That role puts him at the centre of coordination between cybercrime chiefs from 54 African countries. He was promoted to Assistant Inspector General of Police in March 2026. Before that, he served as Director of the Nigeria Police Force National Cyber Crime Centre.
He brings more than eight years of frontline experience fighting cybercrime. His work includes joint operations with the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency. Together, they dismantled fraud rings operating out of Nigeria.
But the ATM card claim was not the only highlight of his address. Ifeanyi also pointed to a bigger shift in how crime happens in Nigeria today.
He challenged the audience with a question. Could anyone name a Nigerian bank robbed at gunpoint since 2024? Nobody could. He pushed further. What about 2025? Then 2024 again. The room stayed silent. That silence made his point for him.
Physical bank robbery has largely given way to digital crime. Today’s armed robber does not carry a weapon into a banking hall. Instead, he sits behind a laptop, a phone, and a router. From there, he runs scams that move faster and reach further than any physical heist ever could.
The numbers back this up. Ransomware attacks are rising sharply in Nigeria. Financial institutions face constant targeting. On top of that, crypto money laundering and AI powered fraud keep growing.
Ifeanyi shared one striking case from before his promotion. The UK’s National Crime Agency handed his team intelligence on a fraud syndicate based in Aba. They estimated it would take at least a month to crack. Ifeanyi disagreed. He told them 48 hours would be enough.
His undercover team delivered. They sent back video evidence within a day. By the 48 hour mark, six suspects were in custody. The raided location looked more like a small tech office than a criminal hideout. It was stacked with routers, phones, laptops, multiple screens, and ATM cards used to run the operation. No weapons were found. Only systems.
So what is the fix? Ifeanyi was candid about where law enforcement falls behind. Criminals move at the speed of technology. Investigations, on the other hand, still move at the speed of bureaucracy.
Consider what it takes to freeze a suspicious account in Nigeria today. First, a court order. Then, a banker’s order sent to the bank. Finally, a verification process that loops back through the courts. This chain can take two to three weeks to complete. By then, the stolen funds are usually long gone.
Closing this gap requires a new approach, Ifeanyi argued. Banks and law enforcement need AI powered tools that can flag suspicious transaction patterns in real time. The goal is simple: catch the fraud before the money leaves the system, not after. Technology built this problem. Only technology moving at the same speed can solve it, he said.
There is also a cost that rarely shows up in official financial crime reports. Ifeanyi called it a hidden tax, one that every Nigerian pays whether they realise it or not. When people lose confidence in banks and payment platforms, investment slows. Financial inclusion drops. The wider economy feels the drag. Yet no single report ever puts a naira figure on it.
The Adhere Compliance Frontline Forum came against the backdrop of Nigeria’s rising digital fraud numbers. The financial system is still working to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated criminals. Ifeanyi’s closing message was blunt. The building is still standing, he said, but the fire is already inside the walls.
