Senate To Enact Laws Backing Electronic Transactions

The senate has moved to consider a bill which would provide a legal framework for all types of electronic transactions and criminalise online fraud in the country.

Senator Ibikunle Amosun said on Thursday during the plenary that the bill would help prohibit and criminalise online fraud.

Advertisement

The bill which has passed second reading, would also make it legally possible to admit evidence of electronic transactions between short-changed parties during court proceeding.

The All Progressives Congress (APC), lawmaker representing Ogun Central, said the country usually records electronic transactions worth billions of Naira on daily basis without any legal coverage for those transactions.

According to Amosu, “How can the contract be authenticated? How do we guarantee the integrity, non-repudiation, confidentiality, writing and signature within the electronic commerce environment?

“All these issues need to be resolved by legislation to boost our economy, encourage foreign investments and ease transactions.

Advertisement

“This Bill is aim to resolve these legal challenges by removing barriers to electronic commerce, while validating and effectuating electronic records and signatures,” he added.

The senator also said that the bill, when signed into law would provide legal assistance to customers who might be cheated in the course of transaction.

Similarly, online transactions accounted for over $10 trillion in sales of products globally, according to report.

The Nigerian Electronic Fraud Forum (NEFF) had in 2019 said that electronic bank fraud cases in Nigeria between 2016 – 2018 rose to N5.571 billion.

Leave a comment

Advertisement