CBN Gives Banks Three Days to Settle USSD Disputes

By Dipo Olowookere

Commercial banks operating in the country have been given three days to resolve any issue brought to them by their customers regarding transactions carried out on their Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platforms.

This directive was given by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the weekend during a programme organised by financial journalists in Lagos.

At the forum tagged ‘Meet The Executive’ and put together by Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), the Director of Banking and Payment Systems Department, Mr Dipo Fatokun, explained that this order became necessary to make customers have more confidence in the payment system and deepen financial inclusion in the country, which is still lagging behind in that aspect.

According to him, some provisions of the regulatory framework for USSD were meant to make the channel more effective.

Mr Fatokun, who was represented at the event by his assistant, Mr Taiwo Oladimeji, listed some of the provisions as authentication measures for transactions, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), Date of SIM Swap, Date of Device change, International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI).

He noted that the maximum USSD transaction limit remained N100,000 per customer daily, and that any amount above that required customers to execute indemnity at the bank.

“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 formalise the sandbox arrangement in Nigeria by collaborating with some infrastructure providers like the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) to interact with FinTechs,” he said.

Mr Fatokun, however, said the financial system was undergoing transformation through technology, and that it was 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 formalise the sandbox arrangement in Nigeria by collaborating with some infrastructure providers to interact with FinTechs,” he added.