Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

  • Lagos, Nigeria
  • Info@bhluemountain.com
  • Office Hours: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Mon - Fri
  • September 20 2024

GTCO’s fintech HabariPay begins recovery of ₦1.1 billion sent to customers in error

HabariPay, the fintech subsidiary of Guaranty Trust, has begun a legal process to recover ₦1.1 billion (*$1.1 million) erroneously sent to several thousand account holders in 2023. On Wednesday, a federal high court in Lagos granted an application for over 40 financial institutions to restrict accounts that received those funds.  The fintech lost the money after it mistakenly credited merchants twice. As a condition for lifting those restrictions, affected merchants will be contacted and asked to refund the extra money received.  “Any other account that benefitted or received the double credit transaction” will also be compelled to refund the extra money, said court documents seen by TechCabal. The court documents did not specify how the double credits happened.  One person with direct knowledge of the situation said hackers accessed the fintech’s website using a strategy called race conditioning, which allowed them to trigger simultaneous transactions.    At least one person connected to GTCO claimed the incident resulted from human error.  Before instituting the legal process, HabariPay had begun recovering some of the funds by directly contacting merchants to reverse some of the transactions, one person with knowledge of the situation said.  It only went to court to compel merchants it could not reach independently to also reverse the transactions. Court orders are crucial for financial institutions since they cannot reverse erroneous transactions without legal authorisation. The fintech’s delay in initiating the court process underscores the slow pace of legal proceedings in Nigeria, a challenge for financial institutions that need to recover lost funds quickly.  Habari Pay’s fraud incident highlights the worrying trend in Nigeria’s financial sector, where financial institutions lost $25.7 million to fraud in the second quarter of 2024—a 1,784.94% jump from the previous quarter.  *The naira’s exchange rate to the dollar in September 2023 was ₦923/$1. US rate cut could revitalise foreign inflows into African startups, increase debt deals

Read More