Recently, an angry Nigerian man took to Twitter to complain about how his mother’s account was wrongfully debited after a failed transaction, even as no refund has been made eight days later.

According to Kehinde Olaoye, his mother tried to make a Point of Sale (POS) payment at a first food restaurant. But her card was declined, after which she realised that her account had been debited. And even though she lodged complaint with her bank, nothing has been done to revert her money which was debited.

Consequently, Mr Olaoye took to Twitter to call on the Central Bank of Nigeria and the bank in question, asking them to help return his mother’s N5,500.

According to him, his mother was promised that the refund would take eight days to reflect. But eight days have passed by and still, there is no refund.

The CBN’s position on the matter

Recall that in September 2018, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a circular notifying Nigerian banks that would be subjected to a fine of N10,000 for every failed card transaction they do not refund within 24 hours after customers’ complaints.

 “A failed NIP transaction not reversed into customer’s account within 24 hours based on complaints of sender and/or beneficiary. N10,000.00 per item.

“Delayed application of inward NIP into beneficiary’s accounts beyond 4 minutes. Based on complaints of sender and/ or beneficiary. N10,000.00 per item.” -CBN

But as Mr Olaoye noted in his tweet, the bank said  that the N10000 fine isn’t applicable to POS transactions. But from the quotation above, it is obvious this is not the case.

Does the CBN directive have any effect?

This then brings us to the important question – when will the Central Bank of Nigeria begin implementing its directive? Based on the comments on Mr Olaoye’s post, it is obvious that cases of wrongful debits and delayed refunds from banks is still prevalent in the country.  How much longer will it continue before a lasting solution is provided?