The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced a collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to resolve customer concerns about failed airtime and data transactions caused by network unavailability, system malfunctions, or human input mistakes.
Nneka Ukoha, NCC‘s spokeswoman, stated on Thursday that the program is intended to ensure reimbursements within 30 seconds.
According to Ukoha, the framework was developed after months of collaboration between the NCC, the CBN, mobile network operators (MNOs), value-added service (VAS) providers, deposit money banks (DMBs), and other stakeholders.
According to the NCC official, the proposal represented a unified attitude of the telecoms and banking sectors in response to mounting complaints from users who were charged but did not get airtime or data.
The framework, according to the spokesperson, also introduces an enforceable service level agreement (SLA) for MNOs and DMBs, clearly defining the responsibilities of each stakeholder in transaction processing and dispute resolution.
“Under the new framework, 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, except in circumstances where the transaction remains pending, of which the refund can take up to 24 hours,” she said.
“The framework further mandates operators to notify consumers via SMS of the success or failure of every transaction.
“It also addresses erroneous recharges to ported lines, incorrect airtime or data purchases, and instances where transactions are made to the wrong phone number.”
According to Freda Bruce-Bennett, head of consumer relations at the NCC, the framework includes a central monitoring dashboard that will track transaction failures, refunds, and SLA breaches in real time. The NCC and the CBN will jointly host the dashboard.
“Failed top-ups rank among the top three consumer complaints, and in line with our commitment to addressing these priority issues, we were determined to resolve it within the shortest possible time,” she said.
“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, and for ensuring that consumers of telecommunications services receive full value for their purchases.
“So far, pending the approval of management of both regulators on the framework, MNOs and banks have collectively made refunds of over N10 billion to customers for failed transactions.”
Bruce-Bennett stated that the framework will be deployed on March 1 following final NCC and CBN approvals and technological integration by MNOs, VAS providers, and DMBs.
