A leading financial services technology firm based in Lagos, Patricia Technologies, has reaffirmed its commitment to 100% repayment of its customers, who were affected by the security breach of its cryptocurrency trading platform, even as the company is yet to make full recoveries.
In 2022, Patricia Technologies experienced a major cyber attack, resulting in the loss of depositors’ funds worth over N600 million. The company has since been cleared of any suspicion as the National Cybercrime Centre of the Nigeria Police (NPF-NCCC) established that the culprits were a prominent politician, Wilfred Bonse, and three other suspects arrested in November 2023.
The CEO of Patricia Technologies, Hanu Fejiro Agbodje, told Channels Television recently that the company has kept its side of the bargain with its customers through continuous repayment. “Over the last couple of months, we have been able to keep our words. In December last year (2024), we made out some payments to customers. And in late 2023, we also made out substantial amount of fund against the customers, keeping to our original commitment to our customers to see everybody refunded”, he announced.
Earlier in 2024, Patricia Technologies had requested for a two to five-year repayment window to enable it generate sizeable income from business operations and law enforcement recovery efforts, for the purpose of repaying customers and consequently, rebuilding trust.
Agbodje said that Patricia Technologies has unshaken belief in the cryptocurrency industry in Nigeria and the African continent, adding: “We believe that opportunities are always available, and that we will be able to make back what we had lost”.
The first firm to introduce cryptocurrency in Nigeria in 2017 and make it mainstream, Patricia Technologies admitted that the breach of its otherwise secured platform in 2023 was perhaps its most challenging period.
Learning from that experience, Agbodje said that, given the deluge of fake news and the fright around cryptocurrency, customer trust and security are major factors in the sector. He explained: “Customer trust is the biggest thing in our industry, considering the amount of fake news and the fear that surrounds crypto as an asset cloud. Security is top notch and I will urge everybody in the industry to invest a lot of money and time on it. You can do your best, but they will still find the loopholes because people are always building every day. Even the biggest companies in the world have experienced security breaches. You have to create a reserve fund so that, in the case of unforeseen circumstances, you have access to reimburse customers, ensuring that you have top notch security, do security audit frequently to ensure that the platform is top notch”.
He dismissed the notion that the platform’s security was not sufficient. “We had very good security at that time. The issue with risk is, the biggest risk is the one not conceived. There were some loopholes in our system that they were able to exploit. It was more of the human factor as opposed to a technological error. Since then, we have stepped up our security and our customers have been very happy with the service we are delivering to them”, Agbodje stated.
He thanked the law enforcement agencies for diligently fishing out the culprits, adding that the cases around the cyberattacks were being prosecuted.
