No fewer that 71 international companies were forced to leave Nigeria in 2022 because their accounts were hacked by internet fraudsters widely known as “yahoo yahoo boys”.The country’s economy also lost over $500 million due to the activities of the fraudsters in the same year.
This was disclosed by Ola Olukoyede, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Thursday while speaking at the Global Peace Movement International awards where he was named the “Man of the Year.”A statement by Dele Oyewale, the Agency’s Head of Media and Publicity, said the EFCC Chairman decried the negative impact internet crimes were having on Nigeria.
Olukoyede said a great number of international companies were forced to shut down their operations and quit Nigeria following massive theft of their finances through local wire fraud.He said: “In 2022, we lost over $500 million in our economy to yahoo boys.
The statistics are there. In the same year, about 71 international companies left Nigeria because they hacked their accounts.“We can’t get credit cards in Nigeria because of our poor credit rating because of the activities of these cyber criminals.
So, the best we can get is debit cards.“Do you know that there are some international merchants that you cannot use Nigerian cards on their platforms?
Display your green passport outside the country and see if they will not take you aside and search you thoroughly.”According to Olukoyede, no shade of economic and financial crime would go unaddressed under his watch at the EFCC.
The said people stealing money in high places started from local governments and school associations.“We will do the mini.
We will do the mega. If you don’t do the mini, the mini will become the mega. Some of these people stealing money in high places started from the local governments.
They started as leaders of associations in schools, where they stole money and they did nothing to them and it became part of their lives,” he said.
