The Rights, Duties and Obligations of Customers and Financial Institutions Within Nigeria’s Evolving Technological Age?
Nigeria is understandably, widely considered as a developing nation. With tremendous potential, incredibly assiduous and intelligent people along with huge deposits of natural resources including arable land, the nation continues to hobble and stagger like a drunken sailor after a long stint at a cheap tavern.
There are varying data from online sources regarding the number of Nigerians with access to the internet but the figure hovers around 80 million and 120 million with a potential for sustained growth over the next couple of years. This common access to the internet probably informed the now embattled Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to embark (arguably prematurely) on sweeping reforms aimed at transitioning the nation from a cash-based/dependent economy to a cashless one. This move, substantially sustained by the Olayemi Cardoso-led CBN commenced under unreasonable timelines and a commercial environment with an immature infrastructure lacking any capacity to take on the “new†challenges.
Like the bankers and their staff, the people of Nigeria were equally ill-prepared for the impromptu sweeping reforms. What happened, from widely reported news items were security breaches culminating in financial losses on the part of the customers who do not have any recourse to compensation or remedy. There was however, an obvious and foreseeable problem – double debit transactions. This occurs where a customer conducting an electronic transaction (on an automated teller machine, point-of-sale terminal or online portal) is debited twice for a single transaction.
Frequently and with most financial institutions, reversal in such cases is automatic! There are however some scenarios where the funds are not reversed and customers’ funds get inordinately trapped in a web of arguments. Several customers would resign their pursuit of such funds when the money and effort to recover appears more than the value of the disputed transaction notwithstanding the desperate poverty across the land. In most cases of erroneous transfers, customers are wont to retain the services of a lawyer in order to secure a court order to recover their money. This tortious, expensive and time-consuming procedure is however, not necessary.
The CBN, per its Regulation on Instant (Inter-Bank) Electronic Funds Transfer Services in Nigeria expressly stipulates the easy process for the recovery of funds involved in a failed transaction. Clause 5.2(8) and (9) provides that funds in a failed transaction shall be refunded into a customer’s account within ten (10) minutes and one (1) hour respectively while Clause 5.2(12) specifically stipulates as follows: Receive customer complaints regarding EFT problems and pursue resolution to a logical conclusion in line with the dispute resolution in clause 10.
For the avoidance of doubt, Clause 10 aims at resolving every dispute arising from electronic banking without the involvement of the judicial system and within two (2) weeks! However, it appears that the practice is to resort to the courts which procedure inevitably lasts for several months.
The purpose of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) is to insure the deposit or funds of customers in banks. Any excuse that strict compliance with the dispute resolution procedure of the regulation is therefore not tenable and ought to be discountenanced. Banks are to familiarize themselves with this regulation with a view to providing stellar customer service in Nigeria so that the sector would flow into the stream of development rather than being stuck in the relics of the past.
Follow the author, AA Ibironke, Esq. on Twitter @SirMcAwesome247
