CBN refunds N10bn arbitrary charges to customers

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), announced on Tuesday that it had refunded N10 billion to commercial bank customers between 2012 and September 2013. Mr Ibrahim Hassan, Assistant Director, Consumer Protection Department of CBN,
announced this on the sideline of the ongoing Workshop for Financial Journalists in Uyo. Hassan said the money was the arbitrary charges on customers’ accounts in the commercial banks. He explained that CBN’s regulatory frameworks provided that erring banks were sanctioned.
He urged customers who experienced arbitrary charges on their accounts to resolve the issue first with their banks before thinking of coming to the CBN. Hassan said CBN would only intervene two weeks after customers had lodged complaints with erring banks.
He said there were testimonies from people who had benefited from CBN’s intervention.
The assistant director, however, observed that only few Nigerians had embraced the financial inclusion policy of the bank. He said the reasons behind the resistance to the new financial and banking processes were due to past experiences with old banks.
“There is lot of sanctions the CBN applies to erring banks because there are rules and prudential guidelines to what banks should do and not do. The whole idea is to gain confidence and trust in the financial system. Our people are not benefiting from the financial system. We want to ensure that more Nigerians participate in financial inclusion so that they can benefit from it. Embracing it will lead to national economic growth.’’