The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have introduced a joint framework aimed at addressing persistent failures in airtime and data transactions, where customers are debited without receiving service.
The 20-page draft framework, published on the CBN’s website on Monday, was developed by the CBN’s Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion Department in collaboration with the NCC, with inputs from banks, mobile network operators, payment service providers and other stakeholders.
The initiative seeks to clarify responsibility among service providers, standardise timelines for resolving complaints, and establish a coordinated consumer redress mechanism spanning the financial and telecommunications sectors.
Director of Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion at the CBN, Dr Aisha Isa-Olatinwo, said the framework is designed to institutionalise accountability and ensure efficient handling of consumer complaints across both industries.
Stakeholders, including financial institutions and members of the public, have been invited to submit comments on the draft to the CBN on or before February 20, 2026.
The framework builds on earlier efforts by the two regulators. In January, banks and telecom operators were directed to implement a new refund process by March 1, 2026. Under the proposed system, failed transactions would attract automatic refunds within 30 seconds, while pending transactions must be resolved within 24 hours.
Director of Consumer Affairs at the NCC, Freda Bruce-Bennett, said the framework also provides for a Central Monitoring Dashboard, jointly managed by the NCC and CBN, to track transaction failures, refunds and service-level breaches in real time.
