AN APPRAISAL OF THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR ONLINE BANKING IN NIGERIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

The financial sector particularly banking is one of the strongholds of any economy. Technology has brought with it advancement and thus the nexus between banking and technology is an avenue for endless opportunities. Before the emergence of modern banking system, banking operation was manually done which led to a slowdown in settlement of transactions. This manual system involves posting transactions from one ledger to another which human handles. Nigeria adopted electronic banking system in the early 2000s. During the introduction of electronic banking system, the use of raw cash was said to have bred corruption through the “cash and carry syndrome†usually linked with the swift movement of “Ghana-must go†bags by some politicians. This work is to appraisal of the legal framework for online Banking in Nigeria and South Africa. See how far the laws are effective in the operation of the online banking. It is observed that the laws cannot effectively protect the online banking operations. It is therefore recommended that separate law should be enacted for e –banking and cyber- crimes that should be subject to changes as the need arises.