Mr Kofo-Abdulsalam Alada, the Director, Consumer Protection Department (CPD) of CBN, said this at a workshop for business editors and members of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), on Thursday in Yola.

Alada, represented by Mr Tyoden Nanfwang of the CPD, said the refund from several banks arose from various financial related complaints.

According to him, the refund is in line with the mandate of the department of the bank to promote consumer confidence in the financial system.

Highlighting some achievements of the department, the director said they had resolved no fewer than 16,263 complaints against banks from 2012 to Nov. 30.

“The cumulative number of complaints against Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) that were resolved or closed from 2012 to the end of November 2019 is about 257.

“We resolved over 13,000 complaints, obtained refunds of N76.75 billion, 20.90 million dollars, among others to bank customers as at Nov. 30.

“The department has also developed a consumer protection framework and established a guide to charges by banks and OFIs,’’ he disclosed.

Alada noted that there was an extraordinary imbalance of power between the service providers and the consumers.

According to him, the goal of consumer protection is to mitigate this power imbalance.

The director said that one of the roles of the department in the bank was to entrench fair and responsible practices among financial service providers through regulations.

He, however, called on bank customers to report any financially related complaints to the CBN anytime they were dissatisfied with responses from their banks.