The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed banks to ensure to resolve all Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cardholders’ complaints within a maximum of 72 hours from the date of receipt the complaints or face sanctions. This is contained in a new set of rules to guide transactions, going forward.
Where records are falsified by any party, the CBN warns that adequate sanctions shall apply.
In an exposure draft on the standards and guidelines on electronic channels operations in Nigeria, signed Dipo Fatokun, its Director Banking and Payments System Department, the CBN also directed banks or independent organizations that deploy ATM for the use of the public to ensure that the ATM vault replenishment must be carried out as often as possible to avoid cash-out.
They are also to ensure that ATMs are not stocked with unfit notes and that cash is available in the machines at all time.
The CBN also warned that the ATM downtime (due to technical fault) must not be more than seventy-two (72) hours consecutively.
It added however, that where this is not practicable, customers shall be duly informed by the deployer.
They are also to ensure that the helpdesk contacts are adequately displayed at the ATM terminals.
It warned that at the minimum, a telephone line should be dedicated for fault reporting and such telephone line shall be functional and manned at all times that the ATM is operational.
Also, all ATM charges must be fully disclosed to customers, the CBN insists in the new rules.
The apex bank said that there must be appropriate monitoring mechanism to determine failure to dispense cash; and that there is online monitoring mechanism to determine ATM vault cash levels.
“Penalties Sanctions, in the form of monetary penalties / or suspension of the acquiring/processing service (s) or both, would be imposed on erring institutions for failure to comply with any of the provisions of the ATM standards and guidelines or any other relevant guidelines issued by the CBN from time to time,” the apex bank warned.
The funding and operation of the ATM deployed by non-bank institutions should be the sole responsibility of the bank or institutions that entered into agreement with them for cash provisioning and in this regard, the Service Level Agreement (SLA) should specify the responsibilities of each of the parties.
The CBN rules noted that Change of PIN must be provided to customers free of charge throughout the entire value chain, while acquirers monitor suspicious transactions and report statistics to CBN based on the agreed format and timeframe.
Back-up power (inverter) is made available at all ATM locations in such a way that the machine would not cease operation while in the middle of a transaction, the CBN said, adding that Waste disposal basket must be provided at all ATM locations.
A register of all their ATMs in Nigeria with location, identification, serial number of the machines, etc must also be maintained, going forward.
For security reasons, every ATM is required to have cameras which would view and record all ATM Security. “However, such cameras should not be able to record the key strokes of customers using the ATM,” the CBN further noted in the statement pasted on its website.
The CBN now requires any institution which operates an ATM to file an updated list of such machines, including the detail location of their addresses with its Banking & Payments System Department for compliance monitoring.
The CBN also disclosed that it will conduct onsite snap checking of ATMs with a view to ensuring compliance with cash and service availability at the ATMs, as it directed acquirers to report volume and value of transactions on monthly basis to its Director, Banking & Payments System Department.
- See more at: http://www.naijaloaded.com.ng/2015/09/16/cbn-hands-out-new-rules-on-atm-operations-in-nigeria/#sthash.wsxbjfaS.dpuf
WHen Shola, who was a 300 Level student of
Business Administration in University of Ibadan, was propositioned by one of her
core course lecturers, a professor that students dreaded failing his course,
little did she know what fate had in store for her. Shola said: “I was surprised
when he made his intentions known to me because I was your normal everyday kind
of girl who didn’t dress provocatively. When I rejected his advances, he made
it clear that it was either I gave in to him or spend an extra year in
school.
Intelligentstudents
“I stood my grounds and had made up my mind to spend the extra year despite being one of the intelligent students in the department. When he saw that I was adamant and he knew he couldn’t defend failing me in the exams, he scored me 40 despite my best efforts.”
Today, Shola runs a successful human capacity training business. She is among the lucky few who escaped the clutches of randy lecturers and higher institution staff, especially as most students spend extra years till they give in to these demands.
Who’s at fault? Sexual harassment is bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favours. It is unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.
Nigerian ivory towers have moulded intellectuals that have shaped the destiny of this nation and have spawned icons, who are contributing their quota to national and global development. But these citadels of academic and moral excellence have, pathetically, become havens for randy lecturers, who specialize in sexual harassment, sexual gratification and, in most cases, rape.
That the internet is full of stories and images of how some lecturers, who were bent on sleeping with students before they would allow them graduate, were set up by would-be victims and their friends, have not deterred others from engaging in such acts. The question then is who is at fault for the rise in this malaise— the female students or lecturers.
‘The students’: A mother of two undergraduates and a post-graduate student herself, Mrs. Kate Oragui, emphatically lays the blame at the doorsteps of female students, who dress scantily and provocatively, especially those who she describes as ‘academically and morally bankrupt’.
She said “when I started my post-graduate programme at the University of Lagos, I was shocked to see female students wearing cloths that barely covered their nakedness and I wonder how they would not be sexually harassed or raped by men who can’t control their libido.
“It is boldly written at the school’s entrance that the way you dress determines how you would be addressed. So I wonder why female students can’t respect and cover their bodies. A good number of the victims are either morally or intellectually bankrupt and are willing to do anything to score high grades.”
Blaming the female students, a Combine Arts student of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, who did not want her name in print, said: “The victims actually play a part in their predicament through their provocative dressing or manner of approaching the male lecturers.
“In cases where such lecturers make promises of good grades, I don’t think I would still consider that as rape. Be that as it may, these ‘good grades’ hardly turn out to be an ‘A’. Rather, it’s usually something less, degrading the self-worth of such a lady that succumbs to such sexual approaches.”
‘It’s lecturers, students, authorities’
Condemning the act in the strongest terms, a lecturer at the University of Benin, Dr. Daniel Ekharefo, blamed the lecturers, female students and school authorities for feeding this monster. He said: “I wonder the level of perversion of the individuals in such cases. Young people should avoid short cuts to success as many lecturers, who sleep with students, ride on the promise to give good grades to students but end up taking advantage of them.
“Unfortunately, the students, more often than not, are prepared to offer their bodies for marks. What is required therefore, is for students to read hard and stand firm. No lecturer can take advantage of a brilliant and intelligent student. “Lecturers need a moral re-awakening to the ethics of their profession and their place in nation building, and school authorities should open channels of communication where students can ventilate their grievances and report the unethical behaviour of their tutors.”
Victims speak up
A third year student of UNN (names withheld), who was sexually harassed by a lecturer, said she did the right and most moral thing by turning down the lecturer despite being promised a good grade.
She said: “It is just a mechanized way by randy male lecturers to satisfy their sexual urge. Some of them are just empty promises and those that go ahead to rape the students should be critically followed up by law enforcement agencies for appropriate punishment.
“It is a devilish act which should be stopped. I believe that students have the right to be listened to when such complains come up in a school environment. And female students should speak to the right persons about such harassment and avoid such lecturers.”
She suggested that ad hoc committees or councils be set up in every tertiary institution to specifically protect students and mete out punishments to offending lecturers or any offender, for that matter.
Another victim of sexual harassment, a National Diploma, ND, II student of Library and Information Science, Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, who pleaded anonymity, noted that sexual harassment and rape are not new because they happen everyday in schools.
Recounting her experience, she said: “Most lecturers feel they can intimidate and threaten female students because, at the end of the day, they are the ones that would score them. So, they see this as a tool to achieve their evil plans. I was lucky because the lecturer involved wasn’t taking us on any core course. So I knew the consequences of calling his bluff would not be so bad.
“So serious was he about having his way with me that he even gave me money to go pay for a hotel room and wait for him at an appointed time. It was like telling the sheep to go wait for the butcher at the slaughter house. Being a sharp Lagos girl, I disappeared with the money after giving him false hope that I would be waiting for him.
“When he eventually saw me after some weeks, I gave one lame excuse and he said I was the first Lagos girl he came across that wasn’t loose as evident in my decent cloths. I guess he just wanted to try his luck with me.”
The way forward
In the words of one of the victims, lecturers who indulge in such acts should be severely punished to serve as a deterrent to others. She said: “I don’t think it would be too hard a consequence if our schools can be strict enough to withdraw the employment of anyone engaged in such act.
“Rape is not a minor issue and any lecturer caught in the act should be stripped of his position and publicly humiliated so that others would learn. Most of them go scot free and that is why they continue in those acts.”
Intelligentstudents
“I stood my grounds and had made up my mind to spend the extra year despite being one of the intelligent students in the department. When he saw that I was adamant and he knew he couldn’t defend failing me in the exams, he scored me 40 despite my best efforts.”
Today, Shola runs a successful human capacity training business. She is among the lucky few who escaped the clutches of randy lecturers and higher institution staff, especially as most students spend extra years till they give in to these demands.
Who’s at fault? Sexual harassment is bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favours. It is unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.
Nigerian ivory towers have moulded intellectuals that have shaped the destiny of this nation and have spawned icons, who are contributing their quota to national and global development. But these citadels of academic and moral excellence have, pathetically, become havens for randy lecturers, who specialize in sexual harassment, sexual gratification and, in most cases, rape.
That the internet is full of stories and images of how some lecturers, who were bent on sleeping with students before they would allow them graduate, were set up by would-be victims and their friends, have not deterred others from engaging in such acts. The question then is who is at fault for the rise in this malaise— the female students or lecturers.
‘The students’: A mother of two undergraduates and a post-graduate student herself, Mrs. Kate Oragui, emphatically lays the blame at the doorsteps of female students, who dress scantily and provocatively, especially those who she describes as ‘academically and morally bankrupt’.
She said “when I started my post-graduate programme at the University of Lagos, I was shocked to see female students wearing cloths that barely covered their nakedness and I wonder how they would not be sexually harassed or raped by men who can’t control their libido.
“It is boldly written at the school’s entrance that the way you dress determines how you would be addressed. So I wonder why female students can’t respect and cover their bodies. A good number of the victims are either morally or intellectually bankrupt and are willing to do anything to score high grades.”
Blaming the female students, a Combine Arts student of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, who did not want her name in print, said: “The victims actually play a part in their predicament through their provocative dressing or manner of approaching the male lecturers.
“In cases where such lecturers make promises of good grades, I don’t think I would still consider that as rape. Be that as it may, these ‘good grades’ hardly turn out to be an ‘A’. Rather, it’s usually something less, degrading the self-worth of such a lady that succumbs to such sexual approaches.”
‘It’s lecturers, students, authorities’
Condemning the act in the strongest terms, a lecturer at the University of Benin, Dr. Daniel Ekharefo, blamed the lecturers, female students and school authorities for feeding this monster. He said: “I wonder the level of perversion of the individuals in such cases. Young people should avoid short cuts to success as many lecturers, who sleep with students, ride on the promise to give good grades to students but end up taking advantage of them.
“Unfortunately, the students, more often than not, are prepared to offer their bodies for marks. What is required therefore, is for students to read hard and stand firm. No lecturer can take advantage of a brilliant and intelligent student. “Lecturers need a moral re-awakening to the ethics of their profession and their place in nation building, and school authorities should open channels of communication where students can ventilate their grievances and report the unethical behaviour of their tutors.”
Victims speak up
A third year student of UNN (names withheld), who was sexually harassed by a lecturer, said she did the right and most moral thing by turning down the lecturer despite being promised a good grade.
She said: “It is just a mechanized way by randy male lecturers to satisfy their sexual urge. Some of them are just empty promises and those that go ahead to rape the students should be critically followed up by law enforcement agencies for appropriate punishment.
“It is a devilish act which should be stopped. I believe that students have the right to be listened to when such complains come up in a school environment. And female students should speak to the right persons about such harassment and avoid such lecturers.”
She suggested that ad hoc committees or councils be set up in every tertiary institution to specifically protect students and mete out punishments to offending lecturers or any offender, for that matter.
Another victim of sexual harassment, a National Diploma, ND, II student of Library and Information Science, Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, who pleaded anonymity, noted that sexual harassment and rape are not new because they happen everyday in schools.
Recounting her experience, she said: “Most lecturers feel they can intimidate and threaten female students because, at the end of the day, they are the ones that would score them. So, they see this as a tool to achieve their evil plans. I was lucky because the lecturer involved wasn’t taking us on any core course. So I knew the consequences of calling his bluff would not be so bad.
“So serious was he about having his way with me that he even gave me money to go pay for a hotel room and wait for him at an appointed time. It was like telling the sheep to go wait for the butcher at the slaughter house. Being a sharp Lagos girl, I disappeared with the money after giving him false hope that I would be waiting for him.
“When he eventually saw me after some weeks, I gave one lame excuse and he said I was the first Lagos girl he came across that wasn’t loose as evident in my decent cloths. I guess he just wanted to try his luck with me.”
The way forward
In the words of one of the victims, lecturers who indulge in such acts should be severely punished to serve as a deterrent to others. She said: “I don’t think it would be too hard a consequence if our schools can be strict enough to withdraw the employment of anyone engaged in such act.
“Rape is not a minor issue and any lecturer caught in the act should be stripped of his position and publicly humiliated so that others would learn. Most of them go scot free and that is why they continue in those acts.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed banks to ensure to resolve all Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cardholders’ complaints within a maximum of 72 hours from the date of receipt the complaints or face sanctions. This is contained in a new set of rules to guide transactions, going forward.
Where records are falsified by any party, the CBN warns that adequate sanctions shall apply.
In an exposure draft on the standards and guidelines on electronic channels operations in Nigeria, signed Dipo Fatokun, its Director Banking and Payments System Department, the CBN also directed banks or independent organizations that deploy ATM for the use of the public to ensure that the ATM vault replenishment must be carried out as often as possible to avoid cash-out.
They are also to ensure that ATMs are not stocked with unfit notes and that cash is available in the machines at all time.
The CBN also warned that the ATM downtime (due to technical fault) must not be more than seventy-two (72) hours consecutively.
It added however, that where this is not practicable, customers shall be duly informed by the deployer.
They are also to ensure that the helpdesk contacts are adequately displayed at the ATM terminals.
It warned that at the minimum, a telephone line should be dedicated for fault reporting and such telephone line shall be functional and manned at all times that the ATM is operational.
Also, all ATM charges must be fully disclosed to customers, the CBN insists in the new rules.
The apex bank said that there must be appropriate monitoring mechanism to determine failure to dispense cash; and that there is online monitoring mechanism to determine ATM vault cash levels.
“Penalties Sanctions, in the form of monetary penalties / or suspension of the acquiring/processing service (s) or both, would be imposed on erring institutions for failure to comply with any of the provisions of the ATM standards and guidelines or any other relevant guidelines issued by the CBN from time to time,” the apex bank warned.
The funding and operation of the ATM deployed by non-bank institutions should be the sole responsibility of the bank or institutions that entered into agreement with them for cash provisioning and in this regard, the Service Level Agreement (SLA) should specify the responsibilities of each of the parties.
The CBN rules noted that Change of PIN must be provided to customers free of charge throughout the entire value chain, while acquirers monitor suspicious transactions and report statistics to CBN based on the agreed format and timeframe.
Back-up power (inverter) is made available at all ATM locations in such a way that the machine would not cease operation while in the middle of a transaction, the CBN said, adding that Waste disposal basket must be provided at all ATM locations.
A register of all their ATMs in Nigeria with location, identification, serial number of the machines, etc must also be maintained, going forward.
For security reasons, every ATM is required to have cameras which would view and record all ATM Security. “However, such cameras should not be able to record the key strokes of customers using the ATM,” the CBN further noted in the statement pasted on its website.
The CBN now requires any institution which operates an ATM to file an updated list of such machines, including the detail location of their addresses with its Banking & Payments System Department for compliance monitoring.
The CBN also disclosed that it will conduct onsite snap checking of ATMs with a view to ensuring compliance with cash and service availability at the ATMs, as it directed acquirers to report volume and value of transactions on monthly basis to its Director, Banking & Payments System Department.
- See more at: http://www.naijaloaded.com.ng/2015/09/16/cbn-hands-out-new-rules-on-atm-operations-in-nigeria/#sthash.wsxbjfaS.dpuf
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