Mastercard invests over $250M on SMEs to address cybersecurity

In spite of the huge investments around the cybersecurity space, deposit money banks lost almost N10 billion in 2023.

This was despite the fact that the multinational payment card services, Mastercard, said it has invested over $250 million to assist small businesses in addressing their cybersecurity needs.

Vice President and Head of Customer Solutions, East and West Africa at Mastercard, Kari Tukur disclosed this at the 2024 Mastercard Fraud & Cyber Resilience Forum in Lagos.

Calling for a collaborative action to tackle the activities of fraudsters in Nigeria, Tukur said: “What was staggering for me was, that in spite of the huge investments around innovation funding in the cybersecurity space, deposit money banks lost almost N10 billion in Q2 last year.

And that’s almost 300 percent growth year-on-year when you compare it to 2022. This has led a lot of government agencies to call for everyone to collaborate to combat this rising sophistication of cybersecurity threats.

“As a leading global payment Technology Company, MasterCard is not just a payment company; we are a technology company in the payment space. And we are moving beyond payments to just being a technology friend across different verticals and sectors.

“But as a global technology company, we embrace challenges as part of our journey. And rather than allowing the challenges within the cybersecurity space to implode and impede our progress, we view it as a way to learn.

“We are deeply committed to cybersecurity and fraud prevention within the payment industry. And we’ve invested significantly in cutting-edge technologies and robust security systems to stay ahead of the evolving cyber threats.

Vanguard