CBN refunds N26.998bn charges to bank customers

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has as of April 2016 refunded a total of N26.998 billon wrongly charged customers by deposit money banks.

Other achievements of the consumer protection department of the CBN are that it was able to resolve over 6,000 complaints out of over 8,000 complaints received and treated.

Ibrahim Hassan, assistant director, consumer protection department, CBN, disclosed this at the weekend in Lagos at a day interactive enlightenment session with stakeholders on measures taken by the CBN to ensure stability in the financial system and economy.

The CBN said through the cashless policy, it had sought to transform both commercial and retail payments to increase the use of electronic (alternative to cash) channels.

Consequently, the instant money transfers through deposit money banks have grown to N10 trillion as of February 2016, from N307 million in the first quarter of 2012.

Agboola Olusola, assistant director, banking and payment system department, said in his presentation that point of sales transaction value had risen from a total of N39 million in January 2012 to N46 billion in February 2016, while mobile money operators’ transaction increased from N31 billion in 2012 to N1.1 trillion in April 2016, with 107,571 agents and 29.9 million customers.

Isaac Okoroafor, acting director, corporate communications department, said the interactive session was a way of sensitising stakeholders about the recent policy measures taken by the CBN.

He said the Financial Literacy Framework adopted in 2013 was reviewed in 2015, and that it adopted a CBN-led multi-stakeholder approach to the delivery of financial education programmes to drive financial inclusion and to promote sustainable economic growth and development.

Responding, Issa Aremu, general secretary of National Union of Textile Garments and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTW), said the interactive session had been quite useful.

According to Aremu, the CBN under Godwin Emefiele has done what labour asked for by insisting that as an import dependent country, Nigeria will not benefit anything from naira devaluation.

“We are happy the CBN has kept to that because any devaluation will have negative impact on workers’ salary,” Aremu told journalists.

CBN further revealed that the number of citizens captured was 5 million while a total of Bank Verification Numbers linked to accounts as of May 31, 2016, stood at 34,765,546.

The bank said it had so far conducted nation-wide cashless sensitisation campaign; successfully implemented cashless policy in Lagos, Abia, Anambra, Kano, Ogun, Rivers and FCT; licensed 21 Mobile Money Operators and six Payment Terminal Service Providers, among others.