Consumer Interest: NCC, CBN Set To Roll Out Refund Framework For Failed Airtime, Data Transactions

<h4>Consumer Interest<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that in line with the consumer-focused objectives of the Nigerian Communications Commission &lpar;NCC&rpar; and the Central Bank of Nigeria &lpar;CBN&rpar;&comma; the two regulators have drawn up a framework to address consumer complaints arising from unsuccessful airtime and data transactions during network downtimes&comma; system glitches&comma; or human input errors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The framework&comma; according to a statement signed by Nnenna Ukoha&comma; Head&comma; Public Affairs of the<br &sol;>&NewLine;Nigerian Communications Commission and made available to OpenLife&comma; is the outcome of several months of engagements involving the NCC&comma; the CBN&comma; Mobile Network Operators &lpar;MNOs&rpar;&comma; Value Added Service &lpar;VAS&rpar; providers&comma; Deposit Money Banks &lpar;DMBs&rpar;&comma; and other relevant stakeholders&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The statement added that these engagements were prompted by a rising incidence of failed airtime and data purchases&comma; where subscribers were debited without receiving value and experienced delays in resolution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>The Framework represents a unified position by both the telecommunications and financial sectors on addressing such complaints&period; It identifies and tackles the root causes of failed airtime and data transactions&comma; including instances where bank accounts are debited without successful delivery of services&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em> It also prescribes an enforceable Service Level Agreement &lpar;SLA&rpar; for MNOs and DMBs&comma; clearly outlining the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder in the transaction and resolution process&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Under the new framework&comma; where a purchaser is debited but fails to receive value for airtime or data—whether the failure occurs at the bank level or with an NCC licensee—the purchaser is entitled to a refund within 30 seconds&comma; except in circumstances where the transaction remains pending&comma; of which the refund can take up to 24 hours&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>The framework further mandates operators to notify consumers via SMS of the success or failure of every transaction&period; It also addresses erroneous recharges to ported lines&comma; incorrect airtime or data purchases&comma; and instances where transactions are made to the wrong phone number&comma;<&sol;strong> <&sol;em>NCC said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking on the development&comma; the Director of Consumer Affairs at the NCC&comma; Mrs&period; Freda Bruce-Bennett disclosed that the framework also establishes a Central Monitoring Dashboard to be jointly hosted by the <strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">Nigerian Communications Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to her&comma; the dashboard will enable both regulators to monitor failures&comma; the responsible party&comma; refunds&comma; and track SLA breaches in real time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Failed top-ups rank among the top three consumer complaints&comma; and in line with our commitment to addressing these priority issues&comma; we were determined to resolve it within the shortest possible time&comma;” she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are grateful to all stakeholders—particularly the Central Bank of Nigeria and its leadership—for their tireless commitment to resolving this issue and arriving at this framework&comma; and for ensuring that consumers of telecommunications services receive full value for their purchases&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;So far&comma; pending the approval of management of both regulators on the framework&comma; MNOs and banks have collectively made refunds of over <strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">N10 billion<&sol;a><&sol;strong> to customers for failed transactions&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mrs&period; Bruce-Bennett further noted that implementation of the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">framework<&sol;a> is expected to commence on March 1&comma; 2026&comma; once the two regulators have made final approvals&comma; and technical integration by all MNOs&comma; VAS providers and DMBs is concluded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;22004" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-22004" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-22004" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;08&sol;Central-Bank-of-Nigeria-CBN-300x167&period;webp" alt&equals;"Consumer Interest&colon; NCC&comma; CBN Set To Roll Out Refund Framework For Failed Airtime&comma; Data Transactions" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"167" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-22004" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>CBN Headquarters in Abuja<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;