In the most recent instalment of his Commonsense series, Murray-Bruce identified several issues with a cashless economy in Nigeria.
He asked for clarity on whether or not Central Bank officials had given the issue any thought.
“The CBN needs to protect the Nigerian people who will be forced to do more money transfers and use their cards to pay through the POS. The CBN officials know just as well as we do that three out of every ten transfers decline the transactions and, at the same time, debit the account owners.
“They also know that only five out of 10 will have the transactions reversed in the 24-hour reversal period leaving the other five to go physically to the bank to complain and get subjected to a cumbersome process of filling forms and having to wait for as long as two weeks to get refunded. Why has the CBN not fulfilled its responsibilities and penalised such banks?”
According to the ex-senator, the CBN rules should cover keeping tabs on when businesses take money from clients for services that were never provided.
“I will strongly campaign for customers whose transactions are declined and subsequently debited and are not reversed within 24 hours to get interested on the funds being withdrawn depending on the amount of money involved and the time spent waiting for the refund. The interest should rise every day.
“It is no different from defaulting on bank loans. And the banks are very familiar with this and the penalties they impose. The Nigerian public should not be the ones to fund the ostentatious lifestyles of bank executives and banks who do absolutely nothing to support Nigerians,” he noted.