The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed commercial banks not to charge fees on transactions initiated by them.
Speaking at the Meet The Executive forum, organised by Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) in Lagos, CBN Director, Banking & Payment Systems Department, ‘Dipo Fatokun, said bank-induced transactions should not be charged on customers’ accounts.
The CBN also directed the banks to resolve disputes arising from use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel within three days.
Fatokun said such resolution would help build more confidence in the payment system and bring more people into the financial services net.
He said some provisions of the regulatory framework for USSD, such as the authentication measures for transactions, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), Date of SIM Swap, Date of Device change, International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), among others, were to make the channel more effective.
Represented by the Assistant Director, Banking & Payments System Department, Taiwo Oladimeji, he said maximum USSD transaction limit remained N100,000 per customer per day, adding that any amount above that requires the customer to execute indemnity at the bank.
Speaking on: Half-Year Review of Developments in the E-Payment Industry and Customer Protection, Fatokun said: “USSD transactions above N20,000 require two-factor authentication (2FA). No USSD financial service should be activated for customer unless the deactivation mechanism is put in place with effect from October, 2018. In addition, the CBN is currently working to properly structure and formalise the sandbox arrangement in Nigeria by collaborating with some infrastructure providers like the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) to interact with FinTechs.”
Fatokun said the financial system was undergoing transformation through technology, adding that it was not only peculiar to the financial services sector, but all sectors of human endeavours.
“We are seeing new operators with technology savvy, more efficient models, and collaborations among new entrants as well as established participants in payments systems in ways that exhibit regulatory challenges. To meet up with the challenges, some countries have adopted regulatory sandbox approach which is not totally novel to the CBN. We are however working to properly structure and formalise the sandbox arrangement in Nigeria by collaborating with some infrastructure providers to interact with FinTechs,” he said.
He said a well-functioning National Payments System (NPS) was crucial to the financial sector development as it increases confidence in the financial sector by ensuring a credible, reliable and efficient payment system. He said in recent years, the payment landscape has experienced a lot of innovation, bursting with enterprise and reaching the unbanked and undeserved.
Speaking further, he said consumer protection involved a whole range of laws, policies, structures, actions and behaviours designed to protect consumers from the abuse and exploitation of service providers.
“Consumer protection is critical in improving access and usage of financial products and services; ensures that increase access and usage of financial services, translate into benefits for the economy and individuals; helps protect consumers from probable market abuse and exploitation; helps con-sumers benefit from well informed decisions; helps consumers appreciate how best to use and manage financial products and services,” he said.
