Account takeover attacks are hitting Nigerian fintech companies hard, and the old security playbooks are not keeping up. Fraudsters are moving faster, smarter, and in higher volumes, pushing companies to look beyond passwords and two-factor authentication for something with more muscle.
Artificial intelligence is stepping in as that something. Fintech firms are turning to AI-powered systems to detect suspicious patterns in real time, flagging unusual behaviour before a transaction goes through or an account gets drained.
The shift is happening because the losses are real and they are mounting. Nigeria's fraud landscape has been intensifying, and fintech platforms, which handle enormous transaction volumes daily, have become prime targets for bad actors looking to exploit any gap in the system.
The move toward AI is less of a trend and more of a survival strategy at this point. The question now is whether the technology can stay one step ahead of the fraudsters adopting it too.
Originally published by BusinessDay.