e-Payment: N/A Plans New Law to Protect System

Suddenly conscious of the dangers of practicing electronic payment (e-payment) system without legislation, the National Assembly has begun moves to put in place relevant laws to protect the implementation of the system, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now reveal.
e-Payment is becoming a commonly used payment method in a wide variety of transactions and may be used in such transactions as banking, utility bill payment, tax payment, and consumer purchases as well as government transactions.
The e-payment concept was meant to check fraudulent practices among banks, government agencies and the business/real sector of the economy but the problems associated with the programme are now worrisome. For instance, there are no policies in place to guide transactions.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that electronic payments are generally subject to the same contract laws as more traditional payment methods and that clearly leaves the system in hands of lethal gang of manipulators.
Also, at present Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), switching companies and commercial banks are the institutions responsible for the needed perfection in the e-payment system while the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) is just a fringe player.
Luckily, the Anti money Laundering and Cyber Crime Coalition, formed by a body of members of the two chambers of the National Assembly has taken the first major step at ensuring that e-payment is available, accountable, accessible, scalable, and comprehensive.
Bassey Etim, member, House of Representatives and coordinator of the coalition, said the body came together with the objective of creating awareness about the dangers of Money Laundering, Cyber crimes and other ICT- related crimes as well as work towards formulating appropriate legal framework to effectively combat the menace.
It was formed in 2008 in consideration of the rising incidences of money laundering cases and the spate of cyber-related crimes and the attendant negative effects on the national economy.
Support has also come from the executive arm of government with, Mr. Ibrahim Dankwambo, accountant general of the federation urging the National Assembly to expedite action on the important piece of legislation.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that e-payment legislation will address some of the common problems of the system including late return or no response in respect of applied funds, use of different IT platforms by different banks resulting in  lack of interconnectivity, non uniformity of account numbers as different banks use different digits and none naira based transactions.
The law will also address other obstacles including lack of awareness of the benefits inherent in it, low appreciation of ICT, low level of education, uneven spread of available ICT infrastructure and epileptic power supply among others.
The place of the Nigerian Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) will also be clearly defined under the law to put paid to claims and counter charges between the two.
Elsewhere, Dr. Chris Uwaje, president, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (Ispon) proposed “ National Software Development ACT to establish the National Software Commission, National Software Product Procurement Accreditation Board (NSPPAB) and relevant agencies” to help Nigeria bridge the digital divide and become an economic giant.
He also called for “Electronic Commerce and Digital Transaction and Digital Signature Act to regulate electronic commerce and digital transactions. Digital Copyrights and Cyber-Regulation Act to protect digital copyrights and regulate cyber activities and Software Standards Act to regulate Software standards, performance and security.”