The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed draft pointers that might require banks and different monetary establishments to refund victims of Authorised Push Fee (APP) fraud inside 48 hours after investigations are concluded.
The doc, launched on November 26, 2025, marks one of many strongest consumer-protection measures launched by the apex bank in response to rising social-engineering scams and payment-manipulation circumstances throughout the monetary system.
In line with the draft, monetary establishments will now be required to finish investigations into reported APP fraud circumstances inside 14 working days.
As soon as the investigation is finalised and the customer is deemed eligible, the bank should subject reimbursement inside 48 hours. The CBN added that establishments that fail to detect suspicious account exercise or freeze fraudulent proceeds shall be answerable for the total publicity.
The framework highlights that APP fraud differs from account compromise as a result of victims are satisfied or manipulated into authorising the switch themselves. These scams often depend on impersonation, deception, emotional strain, or faux funding provides—types of fraud which have develop into harder to forestall as digital funds develop.
The CBN mentioned the draft is aimed toward strengthening belief in Nigeria’s digital-payments ecosystem, the place instantaneous transfers dominate retail transactions. Feedback on the draft pointers are anticipated inside three weeks earlier than remaining guidelines are issued.
CBN strengthens investigations and boosts bank accountability
The draft introduces intensive governance necessities for banks, mandating their boards to approve new fraud-risk insurance policies and oversee all elements of APP-fraud prevention, detection, escalation, investigation, and post-incident assessment.
The foundations require establishments to preserve Early Warning Techniques able to figuring out high-risk transactions primarily based on behavioural patterns, uncommon inflows and outflows, repeated fraud complaints, beforehand flagged accounts, and market-intelligence indicators.
Banks can even be required to determine devoted fraud analytics models to doc red-flag triggers, strengthen inner controls, and replace detection frameworks usually.
In multi-bank circumstances, the originating establishment should start investigation instantly and notify different establishments concerned inside half-hour of receiving the criticism.
The apex bank has additionally strengthened its escalation protocol. The place establishments don’t attain a conclusion throughout the 14-day investigation interval, the case shall be transferred to the CBN’s Shopper Safety and Monetary Inclusion Division, which can subject a binding choice.
Any establishment that fails to freeze fraudulent proceeds, or whose weak inner programs allow such funds to go by, will bear the total monetary legal responsibility.
The rules additional mandate full transparency in speaking investigation outcomes to prospects, together with causes for denial of reimbursement. Detailed information should even be maintained and submitted to the CBN each quarter, alongside proof of economic literacy and fraud-awareness campaigns.
Eligibility guidelines and obligatory 72-hour reporting
The CBN outlined strict circumstances for figuring out whether or not a customer qualifies for reimbursement. A sufferer is eligible the place they authorised the transaction beneath false pretences and had no cheap trigger to suspect fraud. The customer should report the incident inside 72 hours and cooperate totally with the investigation. The draft additionally states that there have to be no proof of negligence, collusion, or legal intent by the customer.
Nonetheless, the rules enable flexibility for delayed reporting in circumstances corresponding to sickness, pressure majeure, safety issues, or demonstrable unavailability of reporting channels.
Banks are required to supply 24/7 reporting platforms, together with hotlines, e mail, cellular apps, USSD channels and in-branch reporting stations.
The draft additionally clarifies cost-sharing guidelines. The place neither the sending nor receiving bank is at fault, however the customer qualifies for reimbursement, each establishments should break up the reimbursement quantity equally. All information dealing with all through the investigation should adjust to the Nigeria Knowledge Safety Act 2023.
The CBN additionally emphasised the necessity for shopper consciousness. Banks shall be required to hold out quarterly fraud-education campaigns throughout a number of languages and platforms, as APP fraud depends closely on deception slightly than system compromise.
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