The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have drawn up a framework to address consumer complaints arising from unsuccessful airtime and data transactions.

The NCC’s head of public affairs, Nnenna Ukoha, said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

Ms Ukoha said that these failed transactions occur during network downtime, system glitches, or human input errors.

Ms Ukoha said that the framework was the outcome of several 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.

“These engagements were prompted by a rising incidence of failed airtime and data purchases, where 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 instances where bank accounts are debited without successful delivery of services,” she said.

She said that it also prescribed 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 said that going by the new framework, whether 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.

Ms Ukoha said the framework further mandated that operators notify consumers via SMS of the success or failure of each 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,” she said.

Speaking on the development, the director of consumer affairs at the NCC, Freda Bruce-Bennett, said that 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 failures and the responsible party, and to track SLA breaches in real time.

Mrs Bruce-Bennett said that failed top-ups ranked among the top three consumer complaints. 

She said that, in line with the commitment to addressing these priority issues, there was a determination to resolve them 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 also thanked them 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.”

She said that implementation of the framework is expected to commence on March 1, once the two regulators have final approvals and technical integration by all MNOs, VAS providers, and DMBs is concluded. 

(NAN)