About 87.5% of Nigerian fintech companies have now deployed artificial intelligence (AI) for fraud detection, highlighting how risk management concerns are shaping technology adoption across Nigeria’s rapidly growing digital financial ecosystem.
This is according to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Fintech Report 2025, released on Monday under the Policy Insights Series, based on a national ecosystem survey, a private stakeholder workshop held in June 2025, and the CBN Fintech Roundtable in October 2025.
The report shows that fraud detection is the most dominant AI use case among fintech companies in Nigeria, far surpassing other applications such as customer service and credit scoring.
What does the report say?
Beyond fraud detection at 87.5%, approximately 62.5% of respondents said they are using AI-powered chatbots for customer service, and 37.5% are implementing AI for credit scoring and risk modeling.
A further 37.5% are applying AI to their customer onboarding and customer awareness processes. Only 12.5% of companies surveyed reported not currently using AI at all.
The report states: “AI is being widely adopted by fintechs in Nigeria, primarily for risk management and operational efficiency. ‘Fraud detection’ is by far the most common use case, adopted by 87.5% of companies. This highlights the seriousness of the fraud problem, which was described at a closed-door stakeholder workshop as a “major problem in the industry.” Other main uses include “chatbot/customer service” (62.5%) and “credit.” “Scoring/Risk Modeling” (37.5%), “Customer Onboarding/KYC” (37.5%).
According to the CBN, this pattern reflects both the scale of the digital fraud challenge facing Nigeria’s financial system and the increasing reliance on data-driven tools as fintech services become more integrated into payments, lending and remittances.
Fintech growth collides with integrity concerns
The AI findings come within a broader assessment of Nigeria’s fintech expansion.
- The report notes that the country processed nearly 11 billion real-time payment transactions in 2024, more than double the amount recorded in 2022, making Nigeria one of the most active instant payment markets in the world.
- However, the CBN warned that rapid digitization is increasing the risk profile of the system.
Despite Nigeria increasing anti-money laundering oversight, tightening identification standards and being removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s gray list, concerns about fraud, weak controls at some fast-growing companies and cross-border financial crime persist.
Industry interest in responsible AI
Despite their focus on regulating fraud, fintech operators have expressed strong interest in expanding AI more broadly under clearer regulatory guidelines.
Approximately 62.5% of respondents said they were very interested in participating in an AI-focused regulatory sandbox.
Meanwhile, 75% prioritized the ethical and transparent use of AI in credit and risk decision-making, and fair and inclusive access to AI tools and data.
The report highlights that as AI systems move from experimental tools to core components of financial services, governance and supervisory learning must also evolve in line with industry adoption.
Barriers to expanding AI adoption
Fintech companies have also identified clear constraints to deeper adoption of AI. Limited access to technical talent and lack of regulatory clarity were each cited as the top obstacles by 37.5% of companies.
Additionally, 50% of respondents said access to high-quality data or infrastructure would be the most important support for expanding the use of AI, highlighting the importance of digital public infrastructure such as interoperable identity systems and reliable data sharing frameworks.
Compliance costs and regulatory friction
Beyond AI, the study highlighted broader pressures within the fintech ecosystem.
Approximately 87.5% of respondents said the cost of meeting regulatory and risk requirements has a significant impact on their ability to innovate.
- At the same time, 62.5% reported that regulatory schedules significantly delayed product launches, and more than a third said approval and compliance bottlenecks were causing new products to take more than 12 months to market.
- Perceptions of regulations remain divided. Exactly 50% of respondents said the regulatory environment was enabling, while the remaining 50% considered it restrictive, citing delays, unclear guidance, and inconsistent application of rules.
Collaboration remains strong despite challenges
Despite these frictions, the report found a strong appetite among fintech companies to work more closely with regulators. 100% of respondents expressed a readiness to collaborate through policy pilots, regulatory sandboxes, or structured working groups.
The CBN said these insights are shaping policy priorities, including innovation-friendly regulation, expanding surveillance technologies, sharing compliance utilities, and deepening collaboration in AI governance, fraud intelligence, and digital identity infrastructure.
