The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have concluded plans to roll out a joint refund framework aimed at resolving persistent consumer complaints arising from failed airtime and data transactions.
The framework, which is the outcome of months of stakeholder engagements involving Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Value Added Service (VAS) providers and other industry players, seek to address cases where subscribers are debited without receiving value due to network downtimes, system glitches or human errors.
Under the new arrangement, subscribers who are debited without successful delivery of airtime or data will be entitled to a refund within 30 seconds, except in cases where transactions remain pending, in which refunds may take up to 24 hours. The framework also introduced an enforceable Service Level Agreement (SLA) that clearly defined the roles and responsibilities of banks and telecom operators in the transaction and resolution process.
Speaking on the development, the Director of Consumer Affairs at the NCC, Mrs. Freda Bruce-Bennett, said the initiative represented a unified position by both the telecommunications and financial sectors to tackle one of the most frequent consumer complaints. She disclosed that failed top-ups consistently rank among the top three complaints received by the Commission.
Mrs. Bruce-Bennett further revealed that the framework provides for a Central Monitoring Dashboard to be jointly hosted by the NCC and the CBN. According to her, the dashboard will allow both regulators to monitor transaction failures in real time, identify the responsible party, track refunds and detect breaches of agreed service levels.
She noted that operators will now be mandated to notify consumers via SMS on the success or failure of every airtime or data transaction, while the framework also addresses issues such as erroneous recharges to ported lines, incorrect purchases and transactions made to wrong phone numbers.
The NCC director added that, pending final approval by the management of both regulators, telecom operators and banks have already refunded over ₦10 billion to customers affected by failed transactions.
Implementation of the framework is expected to commence on March 1, 2026, following final regulatory approvals and the completion of technical integration by all relevant stakeholders.
