Category: Saturday Magazine

Banking, like football, should know neither race nor colour. But an ugly trend is brewing in banks where the blind or visually impaired are systematically excluded from enjoying banking services due to poor attitude of banks’ staff and obsolete technology. COLLINS NWEZE captures silent grudges held against their banks by these individuals.

They are neither losing their money in banks’ vaults nor directly told not to come and do simple banking transactions, but the message to them is depressingly subtle but simple: stay away from the banking halls.

Abiodun Erugbaju, a blind customer of one of the commercial banks in Lagos, shared a personal experience during one of his visits to the bank: “How would you feel when you discover that there are no voice guidance and tactile keyboards on the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) your bank expects you to use. Or there is no screen reading software in terms of online banking that enables the computer to speak everything that appears on the screen. Or hearing a customer service officer ask a colleague, who will be operating the bank account for him? ‘These, he said, were some of his experiences in banks, almost on daily basis.

He went further: “Sadly though, the customer service officer was not even asking me directly, she was asking a colleague. When I heard it, I felt bad, and quickly told her that the question was ridiculous. If you want to ask this type of question, you should ask me. Not a third party that does not know about me. She is not my brother or someone that knows me. Asking a stranger who will be operating my account for me is derogatory. Which means I can’t do that even as a Masters Degree holder? I brought out four different ATM cards and told her that the card she has just given me will make it the fifth that I have at the moment. Then, I told her that she had just insulted me by that question,” Erugbaju narrated.

He said that these things are happening because majority of banks staff lack the needed awareness and competence to attend to people with disability.

According to him, in developed countries, internet and telephone banking services are developed to enable customers who are blind to use them just as easily as anyone else adding that in Nigeria, the barricades thrown up against them by the banks are increasing by the day.

He said although the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has consistently advised banks and financial institutions to provide ATMs that are accessible to and independently useable by individuals who are blind, the banks to do not heed to the pleas.

“So, for me, those are the major problems. For instance, I cannot use any ATM here because they are not audio-enabled. People with physical challenges like those on wheel chair are not always able to access most ATMs because of the way they were built. They have to climb stair cases to make use of them.”

He said most of the blind customers don’t have access to internet banking and usually depend on other people to transact for them, against global best practices. But by providing screen readers, banks would be making it very easy for them to navigate and transact businesses online without necessarily getting assistance from others.

He said although Sanusi is rounding off his tenure, but the CBN can institutionalised policy in collaboration with people with disability to share ideas on how these things can be fixed.

“There has to be some kind of needs assessment on the part of the CBN. The regulator needs to conduct some needs assessment on persons with disability as it concerns banking and this forms whatever policies they will make afterwards.

We appreciate some of their initiatives which are quite thoughtful, proactive and innovative but then, there is a need for a stakeholders’ dialogue on these issues,” he said. According to him, sitting back and making policies without talking to those directly affected will do no one any good.

Erugbayi contended thatthe United Nations conventions on persons with disability instituted in 2006 has enabled them to engage stakeholders with the policy instrument. One of the provisions of that document, he said, is that national governments should domesticate the policy through an act of parliament and set up agencies, on disabilities that will look into these issues. This, he said, led to the establishment of Lagos State Special Peoples’ Law which is now being used to engage operators in different sectors of the economy on how they will domesticate the provisions of these laws on their policies.

 

“We are also pressuring the Federal Government to enact the National Derivative Act. So, a lot of advocacy is going on all over the country, but it will just take some time before it will begin to materialize,” he said.

Executive Secretary, Disability Policy and Advocacy Initiative (DPAI), Dr. Adebukola Adebayo who is also blind, supported Erugbayi’s argument saying the banks need to provide software tools that would enable them use internet banking facilities. He said the ATMs are not well equipped for the blind.

“The ATMs are not equipped to give me my account balances, buy air airtime, pay utility bills among other services,” he said.

For him such inadequacies have discouraged him from using the banks adding that bank notes are not reconisable to the blind.

“Look at the polymer notes we are using now. I don’t know how to differentiate between N5, N10, N20 and N50. They all have same textures and features as far as I am concerned. They are all the same. If the CBN wants to create the needed features, it can do it. But the bitter truth is that they do not even think that some people are disabled. We are the ones affected, but some of them may be disabled one day. Challenges can visit anybody just like rain can fall at any time without announcements,” he said.

Adebayo who banks with Zenith, Access and Diamond banks said he has not noticed any improvements on the attention and services they give to him or some of his friends that are blind.

“These banks forgot that even some of their directors can have accidents, even if it is domestic accidents and face similar problems we are facing today,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide with 39 million blind and 246 have low vision. Also, about 90 per cent of the world’s visually impaired live in developing countries, 82 per cent of them blind and aged 50 and above.

Mrs Rita Boyo said there are so many things she wanted the financial sector to improve on. She said she cannot use the ATMs because of difficulties in accessing the keys adding that banks should put some signs on the ATM that identify the numbers on the keypad and well as the notes.

“I was at Wema Bank the other time, and I had to call the security man to assist me with my account number. And you know the account number is supposed to be private but I have to disclose it just to get the transaction done. I also do same with my ATM Personal Identification Number (PIN), which is not supposed to be. Even the cheque books can be done in a way that it becomes easier for us to use. We also need to identify the notes. There are cases that the bus conductor will tell you that the note is N100 when actually it is N200 or even N500 and they will take the balance,” she disclosed.

Boyo said although she has not been a victim of ATM fraud, many of her friends have been defrauded by the very people they trusted with their ATM cards and PINs.

Ejiro Okotie, Coordinator, Nigeria Association of the Blind (NAB), said a lot advocacy needs to be done on the financial system. She said her experiences with her banks were not encouraging. “For instance, if I don’t fill my pay slip before I walk into the bank, getting someone to do it for me is going to be a challenge. Another problem is access to the bank. Some of us move with the guide canes which cannot pass the electric doors installed at the entrance of the banking halls,” she said.

Continuing, Okotie said sometimes, she had to drop her cane behind, or talk to the security personnel to disable the entrance door before she can go in with the cane. She regretted that many of the banks do not have alternative doors for persons with disability to go into the banking halls without inconveniencing others.

“I also think there should be at least a customer care person that should be sorely responsible for attending to persons with disability including illiterate persons. I always need someone to help me type my PIN when using ATMs. We need ATMs that can talk so that the needed confidentiality will be available for the blind,” she said.

Speaking further, she advised banks to train their staff to render disability-friendly services, especially for the blind. “If you give me all my bank statements in prints, I have to get someone to read it to me. But if they have the necessary facilities in place to make sure that information are put in accessible format, life will be made a little easier for us,” she said.

Okotie said on many occasions, she had to return to the bank to make corrections because the security personnel that helped her filled the teller got it wrong adding that such occurrences could be eliminated with improved commitment by the banks.

Julius Kamya, Executive Director, African Union for the Blind, a Ugandan working in Lagos and Nairobi, Kenya also recounted his experience with Barclays Bank, Uganda when his request for a $7,000 salary advance loan was declined.

“I applied for a loan and they said your organisation did not qualify when we did the qualification sampling. Then I said no problem, I am not qualified, but one of my staff who is not disabled applied for the loan and got it. I am the chief executive officer of the organisation where she works, how come I was not qualified? What is the problem so that I rectify it and not make other staff lose when they apply?

“They said I was just not qualified. Then I said, can you put what you are telling me in writing? The bank said no. Then, I contacted my lawyer who wrote them. They sensed there was big trouble when I kept writing them, up to three times. They gave me the loan. I was contemplating dragging them to court, before they responded. They just sensed I was on the move,” he said.

Kamya, who spoke while attending a conference in Lagos, said there was need for continuous advocacy for persons with disability, especially the blind. He said challenges faced by the blind differ from bank to bank, but the issues have to do with discrimination, poor customer services and outright denial of banking services.

“Some banks don’t think that I am eligible to have a bank account. Some banks do not accept thumb prints thereby excluding the blind that may not be able to sign with a pen. Sometimes, it may have to do with ignorance by the staff of the banking institution. Some banks even think that as a visually impaired person, one is not entitled to a loan. There are also issues around bank notes not being accessible to blind users who will not be able to differentiate one currency from another. I have seen these practices in Lagos, Kenya and Uganda,” he said.

According to him, governments at all levels need to be consulting with disabled persons when making policies that affect their lives and finances. “We have a slogan that says ‘Nothing for Us Without Us’ meaning that we are the better advocates for ourselves. So, we need to be part of whatever policies that are designed for us. There is also need for more sensitisation in the banking sector so that their staff look at us as human beings,” he advised.

At the conclusion of a one-day public policy dialogue on inclusion of persons with disabilities in government policies and programmes oganised by Nigeria Association of the Blind (NAB) in partnership with Disability Policy and Advocacy Initiative (DPAI), in Lagos, the convener of the programme, Olufunke Osindele said banks are not doing enough to ensure that people with disabilities are included in the financial system.

She said banks should make messages about their products and services available to the blind in a manner they can understand them. She called on stakeholders to work towards ensuring the effective inclusion of people with disabilities in empowerment programmes that would have positive behavioural change on their relationship with their banks.

Osindele said the exclusion of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) from the design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of government policies on key issues that affect their lives are highly disturbing.

She said there is also need to include PWDs in national and state strategic plans and other relevant policy documents on banking operations, telecom and reproductive health, which she said, constitute major concern to stakeholders.

 

Position of the Law

 

Different state governments across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja have all indicated interest in inaugurating the Special Peoples’ Law within their jurisdictions.

Lagos State has been able achieve this feat with the inauguration in June 2011, of the Lagos State Special People’s Law championed by the Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA).

Sections 13 and 30 of the law stipulate that persons with disability have the right to express their opinion and receive information meant for the general public through any means of communication of their choice. The government and corporate organisations should always make the information available in accessible formats such as sign language, Braille, and other methods to these special people. Also, it mandated that within five years, corporate organisations must employ properly trained personnel who can attend to their customers/ clients with disability.

Also, section 25 sub section two of the law directed that persons with disability shall be given first consideration as much as possible at ATM points, banking halls, bus stops among others.

However, as laudable as these provisions are, implementation has been a challenge.Adebayo said although similar laws have been inaugurated in others states within the Federation, implementation of such laws have been a problem. He said none of the banks have been questioned over the implementation of any part of the law.

 

CBN react

 

Special Adviser to the CBN Governor on Sustainable Banking, Dr. Aisha Mahmood disclosed plans by the bank to institute nationwide Biometric Solution for the financial system which she said would be a game changer for financial inclusion including addressing the issues raised above.

Speaking to The Nation on the matter, she said the CBN has been making steady progress on how to get more people into the financial system, including people with disabilities.

“The Biometric Solution Project of CBN to start in 2015 will authenticate banks’ customers, Point of Sale (PoS) terminals and ATMs and hence, is a game changer for financial inclusion,” she said.

Mahmood said the facility is also expected to help those who are not educated to use biometric to be part of the financial system. She said the CBN is concerned about challenges faced by the blind, which prompted a directive to banks to build wheelchair-friendly branches and also have blind persons within their workforce.

She, however, admitted that the CBN is yet to commence monitoring the level of compliance in most banks. “We are really concerned about the plight of this set of people and that’s why we are taking these steps. Banks are currently making inputs into the sustainable banking principles before we start implementation,” she said. The biometric solution is expected to promote the use of thumbprint as major means of identification in banks and ATMs.

However, the project will take a few months, after takeoff, to go round the country and register customers of deposit money banks (DMBs) before it gets to the microfinance banks.

When contacted, CBN Director, Consumer Protection Department, Mrs Ummar Dutse said she was aware that banks have been asked to build more accessible branches that would allow people with disabilities enter the banking hall easily. She however, refused to provide more details on what her unit is doing to enhance financial accessibility for the blind.

 

Banks speak out

 

FirstBank’s spokesperson and Head of Marketing and Corporate Communication, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney, said the bank is deepening its retail dominance with the launch of innovative products and services, tailored to suit the changing times and ever growing customer base.

She said the bank has started building wheelchair-friendly branches and will continue to take steps to get more people, including the blind, into the financial system.

According to her, the lender has already installed biometric ATM in many of its branches, adding that with that feat, what is needed to open an account is simply the customer’s fingerprint.

Also, the spokesman for Skye Bank, Bolarinwa Rasheed, said his bank is following up with regulatory demands and is complying. He said the blind like every other special people receive priority in his bank.

The Head of Media, United Bank for Africa Plc, Ramon Olanrewaju, said the lender is taking steps to ensure that every of its branches have facilities for the disabled.

“I can tell you that those on wheel chair or blind are well taken care of. There are security gates which they have to pass through. We try as much as we can to ensure that they get adequate attention,” he said.

Findings also showed that some private operators are worried on how to help banks wriggle out of the quagmire. SIBS International, a Portuguese firm, said it has begun technology transfer to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), a key stakeholder in e-payment market, so as to help banks achieve seamless e-payment plans for the country.

Managing Director, SIBS International, Pedro Hipolito said during this year’s Card, ATMs Expo held in Lagos that his firm has already entered into partnership with many of the local banks to strengthen their information technology.

He disclosed plans to import multifunctional ATMs with biometrics that can cater for the blind within the population and handle currency recognition, acceptance, and recycling, paying routine bills, fees, and taxes, printing bank statements, adding pre-paid cell phone / mobile phone credit among others.

 

Financial inclusion statistics

 

In a circular to banks released on Tuesday and titled: National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), Sanusi said Nigeria lags behind some of her peers in Africa when it comes to provision of financial services. He said only 36.3 per cent of the country’s adult population, representing 30.7 million out of 84.7 million are served by formal financial services. This compared to 68 per cent in South Africa and 41 per cent in Kenya.

“The vast majority 80.4 per cent of those who are fully excluded from formal and informal financial services live in rural areas,” he said.

He said 39.2 million adults representing 46.3 per cent of the adult population are excluded from financial services. Out of this, women account for 54.4 per cent while those under 45 years account for 73.8 per cent and the uneducated 34 per cent.

Sanusi admitted that currently, there are no specific regulations and policies on financial inclusion in place. However, many regulations and policies have impacts on financial inclusion, particularly those that focus on distribution channels such as ATMs or Point of Sale (PoS) devices.

Above all, the banking sector needs to do more by having a suitable financial inclusion strategy that also has place for PWDs. Doing this will ensure that not only the blind and other PWDs are fully integrated into the financial services sector, but are given opportunity to enjoy the full benefits of banking.