Objective
This document outlines the procedure for resolving disputes on Ncwallet Africa and provides details about the associated Turnaround Times (TATs) for each step of the process.
Parties
The possible parties in a transaction are as follows:
Payer: The individual or organization who initiated a payment to a merchant on Ncwallet Africa.
- Merchant: The organization registered on Ncwallet Africa serves as a designated recipient for value for their payments.
- Ncwallet Africa: The Financial technology Company that acts as an intermediary platform that facilitates secure and efficient transactions between the payer and the merchant.
Dispute Guidelines & Process
Outlined below are various scenarios that can potentially give rise to disputes, along with a detailed explanation of the corresponding process for effectively managing and resolving such disputes.
Erroneous debits on a transaction attempt.
Erroneous transfer due to error by the Payer.
Successful transfer but not reflecting on the merchant’s application.
Regardless of the scenario, the process for responding to disputes is as follows.
Payer lodges complaint with his bank.
Payer’s bank logs the dispute against our partner bank who was involved in processing that specific transaction.
The partner bank logs the dispute on Ncwallet Africa and the merchant is automatically notified of the dispute.
The merchant can either accept the dispute or reject the dispute and provide the following proof.
Evidence of provision of service to the customer.
Evidence of a successful reversal with regards to the disputed transaction.
Where the merchant accepts the dispute, funds will be reversed from the merchant’s account to the sender’s account if funds are available or the disputed amount may be deducted from the next settlement.
Where the merchant provided proof to reject the dispute, the sending institution will be notified with the proof and the dispute should be considered invalid.
For a dispute where proof has been provided, the Payer’s bank is expected to notify the Payer of the reason the dispute was rejected.
If the Payer logs the dispute again for the same transaction, then the case may be referred to arbitration.
Fraudulent Transaction Resolution Process
Fraudsters may get unlawful access to customer’s cards or accounts and may then process payments using these channels to merchants. The process for handling fraudulently processed transactions is as follows:
Defrauded customer lodges complaint with his bank.
Defrauded customer’s bank logs the dispute against our partner bank/card processor who was involved in processing that specific transaction.
The partner bank reports the fraudulent transaction to Ncwallet Africa.
Ncwallet Africa immediately notifies the merchant of the fraudulent transaction.
- The merchant is expected to cooperate fully by taking the following actions:
- The merchant must provide full KYC information of the customer who is the beneficiary of the fraudulent transaction including:
- BVN
Full Name
Phone Number
Address
Official ID
And any other KYC information available
If a part or whole of the funds for the fraudulent transaction are still available, then the funds should be restricted and the customer should be prevented access to such funds.
If the funds have been sent to another account or accounts, the merchant must provide full details of the destination account(s) as well as the amounts sent and the dates.
If value has been given for the funds, the merchant must provide full details of the beneficiary of the value which could be a phone number, meter number etc as well as proof of rendering value.
The merchant will be required to refund funds that were restricted successfully to Ncwallet Africa for onward processing to the defrauded customer.
Turn Around Times (TAT)
The Turn Around Times for disputes on interbank transfers are as defined by the CBN and Transfer Processor. However, the TAT for disputes logged on Ncwallet Africa are captured in the table below
| Description | TAT |
|---|---|
| Time for a merchant to respond to a dispute logged on Ncwallet Africa. | 24 hours |
| Time for a merchant to respond to a reported fraudulent transaction. | 12 hours |
Merchant Liability
Failure of the merchant to cooperate fully with the processes above and keep to the TATs specified may lead to the merchant being liable for the fraudulent or disputed transaction. Ncwallet Africa may have to recover the disputed amount from the Merchant either by deducting the amount from it’s next settlement or via other means.