By MTN Nigeria’s fintech subsidiary, Mobile Money Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB) Limited has suffered a data breach, BlackBox Nigeria reports.
This comes barely a week after the payment platform formally commenced operations in Nigeria following the final approval for a Payment Service Bank license by the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN).
According to the company, the fintech PSB is positioned to enable millions of unbanked and underserved Nigerians to access a wide range of financial service products with an expansive agent network of over 166,000 agents and digitized partnership infrastructure.
However, it was gathered that the MoMo PSB experienced a major security breach, resulting in hackers withdrawing over N20bn in 24 hours, an occurrence that has since thrown the whole organization into chaos.
Though MTN Nigeria is yet to formally confirm the development, the Fraud Desk of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), the government regulatory agency, has notified other fintech organisations to be weary of transactions from MoMo PSB.
An email from the NIBSS reads in part, “Please be informed that we are currently investigating a suspected fraud case involving MoMo PSB transactions.
“You are hereby advised to closely monitor all inflows from MoMo PSB wallets/accounts for suspicious activities while we investigate. We shall provide an update as soon as possible.
“Please find the NIP Code for the institution below to help you track. MOMO PSB NIP Code – 120003.
“This should be treated as urgent!”
Meanwhile, there have been serious concerns over the increasing cyber attacks on Nigeria’s growing Fintech space, with reports of cybercriminals using sophisticated techniques to access funds in Fintechs and credit unions.
