NCC, CBN Seek to Curb Financial Frauds

• NCC, CBN Seek to Curb Financial Frauds

The Nigerian Communications Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria are to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to curb the use of telecommunications networks to defraud bank customers.

The Head, Zonal Operations Department, NCC, Mrs. Helen Obi, disclosed this at the eight edition of the Consumer Conversation in the North-Central Zone held in Abuja on Tuesday.

Obi said although banking services were under the purview of the CBN, it was necessary for both organisations to collaborate because many bank customers were getting cheated through platforms provided by telecommunications network operators.

She stated, “As a result of online payments, there are a lot of collaborations, which have become necessary between the NCC and the CBN. So both parties have recognised that fact and we are making sure that customers and consumers in the banking and telecom sectors are not short-changed.

“Along that line, we are discussing on common grounds to come up with a Memorandum of Understanding that will guide the sectors and regulate banks and telecommunications service providers.”

The MoU is expected to guide a campaign to enlighten banking and mobile subscribers on methods that fraudsters use to perpetrate financial frauds using telecommunications and Internet platforms.

On what the regulatory agency was doing to check wrong billing by mobile operators, Obi said that the NCC was ensuring that the operators complied with price ceilings and price floors that had been given to them.

She added that customers who had been overbilled should complain to the operators and should the operators fail to resolve the issues, the customers should explore several channels that the commission had instituted to escalate the complaints.