The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Saturday directed all commercial banks in the country to resolve disputes arising from use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel within three days.
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 such resolution will help boost confidence in the payment system and bring more people into the financial services net.
According to him, some provisions of the regulatory framework for USSD like 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 meant to make the channel more effective.
Fatokun, who was represented by Assistant Director in the department, Taiwo Oladimeji, said maximum USSD transaction limit remains N100, 000 per customer per day, as any amount above requires the customer to execute indemnity at the bank.
Speaking on the theme: 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 customers unless the deactivation mechanism is put in place with effect from October, 2018. In addition, the CBN is currently working to properly structure and formalize the sandbox arrangement in Nigeria by collaborating with some infrastructure providers like the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) to interact with FinTechs”.
He added that the financial system is undergoing transformation through technology, adding that it is 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 formalize the sandbox arrangement in Nigeria by collaborating with some infrastructure providers to interact with FinTechs,” he added.
A properly functioning National Payments System (NPS), he continued, is crucial to the financial sector development as it increases confidence in the financial sector by ensuring a credible, reliable and efficient payment system.
In recent years, he stressed that the Nigerian payment landscape has experienced a lot of innovation and is now bursting with enterprise and reaching the unbanked and undeserved.
Speaking further, he said consumer protection, involves 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 consumers benefit from well informed decisions. Helps consumers appreciate how best to use and manage financial products and services,” he said.
