Maduka Nweke

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the weekend directed all commercial banks to resolve disputes arising from use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel within three days.

Speaking at the “Meet the Executive” forum organised by Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) in Lagos, CBN Director, Banking & Payment Systems Department, ‘Dipo Fatokun, said such resolution will help build more confidence in the payment system and bring more people into the financial services net.

He said some provisions of the regulatory framework for USSD such as the authentication measures for transactions, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), Date of SIM Swap, Date of Device change, International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), among others, were meant to make the channel more effective.

Fatokun, who was represented by Assistant Director, Banking & Payments System Department, Taiwo Oladimeji, said maximum USSD transaction limit remains N100,000 per customer per day, adding that

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any amount above that requires the customer to execute indemnity at the bank.

Speaking on the theme, “Half-Year Review of Developments in the E-Payment Industry and Customer Protection”, Fatokun said: “USSD transactions above N20,000 require two-fac- tor authentication (2FA). No USSD financial service should be activated for customer unless the deactivation mechanism is put in place with effect from October, 2018. In addition, CBN is currently working to properly structure and formalise the sandbox arrangement in Nigeria by collaborating with some infrastructure providers like the Nigeria Interbank Set- tlement System (NIBSS) to interact with FinTechs.”

Fatokun added that the financial system is undergoing transformation through technology, adding that it is 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 the challenges, some countries have adopted regulatory sandbox approach, which is not to- tally novel to 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 said.

He said a well-functioning National Payments System (NPS) is crucial to the financial sector de- velopment as it increases confidence in the financial sector by ensuring a cred- ible, reliable and efficient payment system. He added that in recent years, the Ni- gerian payment landscape has experienced a lot of innovation, bursting with enterprise and reaching the unbanked and undeserved.