Telecoms customers who experienced service failure, especially airtime ad data purchases will get their refunds in 30 seconds if debited from March, 2026.
A new refund framework being worked on by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) seeks to address consumer complaints arising from unsuccessful airtime and data transactions during network downtimes, system glitches, or human input errors.
A disruptive effort to meet their consumer-focused objectives, the refund framework is the outcome of several months of engagements involving the NCC, CBN, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Value Added Service (VAS) providers, Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), and other relevant stakeholders.
According to the NCC, these engagements were prompted by a rising incidence of failed airtime and data purchases, where subscribers were debited without receiving value and experienced delays in resolution.
Under the proposed new framework, where a purchaser is debited but fails to receive value for airtime or data—whether the failure occurs at the bank level or with an NCC licensee—the purchaser is entitled to a refund within 30 seconds, except in circumstances where the transaction remains pending, of which the refund can take up to 24 hours.
Speaking on the development, the Director of Consumer Affairs at the NCC, Mrs. Freda Bruce-Bennett disclosed that the framework also establishes a Central Monitoring Dashboard to be jointly hosted by the NCC and the CBN.
