The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have developed a joint framework to address consumer complaints arising from failed airtime and data transactions.
The NCC’s Head of Public Affairs, Mrs Nnenna Ukoha, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
Ukoha explained that failed transactions often occur during network downtimes, system glitches or as a result of human input errors.
She said the framework was the outcome of months of engagements involving the NCC, the CBN, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Value Added Service (VAS) providers, Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and other relevant stakeholders.
According to her, the engagements were prompted by the rising incidence of failed airtime and data purchases in which subscribers were debited without receiving value and experienced delays in resolution.
“The framework represents a unified position by both the telecommunications and financial sectors on addressing such complaints.
“It identifies and tackles the root causes of failed airtime and data transactions, including cases where bank accounts are debited without successful service delivery,” she said.
Ukoha said the framework also prescribes an enforceable Service Level Agreement (SLA) for MNOs and DMBs, clearly outlining the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder in the transaction and resolution process.
She added that under the new framework, where a failure occurs either at the bank level or with an NCC licensee, the purchaser is entitled to a refund within 30 seconds.
“However, where a transaction remains pending, the refund period may extend to a maximum of 24 hours,” she said.
Ukoha noted that the framework also mandates operators to notify consumers via SMS of the success or failure of every transaction.
“It further addresses erroneous recharges to ported lines, incorrect airtime or data purchases, and instances where transactions are made to the wrong phone number,” she said.
Commenting on the development, the Director of Consumer Affairs at the NCC, Mrs Freda Bruce-Bennett, said the framework also establishes a Central Monitoring Dashboard to be jointly hosted by the NCC and the CBN.
According to her, the dashboard will enable both regulators to monitor transaction failures, identify the responsible parties, track refunds and monitor SLA breaches in real time.
Bruce-Bennett said failed airtime and data top-ups ranked among the top three consumer complaints received by the commission.
She said the NCC remained committed to resolving such priority issues within the shortest possible time.
“We are grateful to all stakeholders, particularly the CBN and its leadership, for their tireless commitment to resolving this issue and arriving at this framework,” she said.
Bruce-Bennett added that the collaboration was aimed at ensuring consumers of telecommunications services receive full value for their purchases.
She disclosed that, pending final approval of the framework by the management of both regulators, MNOs and banks had collectively refunded more than ₦10 billion to customers for failed transactions.
According to her, implementation of the framework is expected to commence on March 1, subject to final regulatory approvals and the completion of technical integration by all MNOs, VAS providers and DMBs.
