Bank customers have expressed frustration over frequent waste of their time trying to transact business. They slammed the banks for making huge profits at their expense and refusing to employ adequate staff to do the jobs, INNOCENT DURU reports
There was disquiet at a branch of an old generation bank in Ladipo part of Mushin, Lagos State penultimate Friday as customers engaged the workers and management in a shouting match over endless waste of their time. The protest had started with murmurs from some of the aggrieved customers until a slim old man walked into the banking hall.
“I need a mat and a pillow to lie down,” he said jokingly as he sauntered round the hall. “I have been here for only God knows hours and it is not yet my turn. I have gone to my house and returned a couple of times and yet the line is not moving,” he added as he raised his voice and gradually fired up the anger in other customers.
Seeing that the management was doing nothing about his predicament and those of other customers in the hall, the old man further raised his voice, this time, issuing a serious threat.
“We will burn down this bank! he threatened. “If you people are not ready to serve the people again, close down the place.
“You keep declaring huge profit but you would not employ workers to serve the customers.
“You have kept old people, pregnant women, children and other vulnerable people standing for hours and there is no chair for us to sit. What kind of exploitation is that? What kind of country is this? I will come here on Monday with newsmen to show the world the inhuman treatment you are subjecting customers to.”
The visibly angry customer’s outburst gave brought out the anger in other agitated customers as they also raised their voices and called the bank and its workers unprintable names.
“Look at the counter, only two of the six seats are occupied with officials attending to customers. Is that proper? Why are they concerned about their profits alone without any feeling for the customers from whom they get the money they trade with and make profit?
“We two have other things to attend to in our places of work and business. I am supposed to go and pick my children from school, but this delay has almost made that impossible.
“Before we entered into the banking hall, we had sat outside, under the tent, for a very long time. Employ more workers and stop being stingy, ” an enraged woman said.
As the situation became more tense, the manager and an armed mobile policeman waded into the matter but the situation was not immediately brought under control.
It took a long time of pleading and persuasion before the angry customers were appeased.
This reporter, who was in the banking hall, left at about 4pm without achieving his mission, to attend to official assignment.
As at the time he was leaving, the number of customers outside the banking hall was more than those in the hall with feelings of frustration, anger and disappointment clearly written on their faces.
Checks revealed that needless waste of customers’ time by banks is widespread and was fast becoming a norm.
A bank customer, who gave his name simply as Mark, said going to transact business in banks has become a nightmare.
“You can spend three to four hours on queue before they will attend to you. There is a bank at Igando area of Alimosho Local Government, when you get there, the security men will lock you outside until there is a space for you to sit under the canopy placed within the premises.
“This is very dangerous because criminals could use the opportunity to attack and dispossess one of his hard earned money. When you luckily enter into bank’s premises, you will begin another round of queuing.
“There was a day I went there to transfer money to somebody. It was not my turn until it was past five, and at that time, there were still so many people behind me. I wrote N250,000 on the teller but when I received the alert which came the following day, it was N200,000 that the lady transferred.
“The pressure on her was too much and she was susceptible to committing blunders. I went to the bank the following day to inform her about it. When she checked and found that it was true, she started apologising to me. I told her not to worry because I saw and knew she was already worn out by that time. Assuming she had mistakenly paid someone above what she was supposed to, what would have happened? You cannot even guarantee that such doesn’t or had not happened before. Something drastic needs to be done about this in the interest of the customers and the banks as well.” A recharge card dealer, Moses, said he feels like going to the bank with not only his mat but also a stove.
“It is sickening that you will go to the bank and end up spending the whole day in the queue.
“It is worse if you are going to make a large deposit in the bulk room. There, you will see one or two bankers attending to a large number of people.
“When they are tired, they will instruct the security men to tell customers to go and make deposits through the ATM machines.
“How do you expect a customer who wants to deposit N500,000 or N1 million to go and do that at the ATM stand? Even when you try to explain to the security men that you are there to deposit huge money, they will tell you that was the order given to them. It is distressing. They are exposing customers to a lot of dangers and discouraging people from using their services.”
Another bank customer, Ogochukwu, said queuing for a long time in banking halls aggravates the pains he experiences in his legs.
“If I have my way, I would never have anything to do with going to banking halls again.
“The long queues always worsen the pains I have in my legs. Unfortunately, there are no more chairs for one to sit in the banking halls.
“You just have to stand for as long as it takes them to attend to you. It is reprehensible.
“Whenever you want to go for a transaction in a bank, don’t just be in a hurry. Prepare your mind to spend the whole day. Must it be like that?”
Over 11, 000 workers sacked in two years asuse of PoS rises
The embattled bank customers’ call for employment of more workers as a solution to the long delays they experience may not be far from the truth.
An average of 18 people were sacked every working day between January and September 2019, according to data made available by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). According to the ‘Selected Banking Sector Data: Sectorial Breakdown of Credit, e-Payment Channels and Staff Strength’ report, 3,582 people were sacked between the first and third quarter of 2019.
There are 195 working days between January and September.
Between the first and second quarter, the staff strength of the banking sector reduced by 653 people and further declined by 2,929 between the second and third quarters.
Contract staff was the worst hit, declining by 3,083 between the second and third quarter.
However, the number of junior staff within the sector increased by 414 from 39,980 to 40,398.
The report covered commercial banks, merchant banks, non-interest banks and deposit money banks.
The ugly development worsened in 2020 with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, revealed that in the fourth quarter of 2020, the number of banking staff dropped by 8,584 to 95,026 as at December 31, 2020 compared to 103,610 which was in the employ of banks in 2019.
A sectoral performance report released by the NBS in December 2020 revealed that the 44,664 contract staff on commercial banks’ payrolls at the turn of the year had been reduced to 39,573 (a decrease of 5,091) as at the end of September.
A total of 2,359 junior workers were similarly axed or resigned, while senior staff, who form 18.5 per cent of the workforce, reduced by 564. The commercial banks, surprisingly, increased their executive staff (who takes home the lion’s share of the personnel costs) from 153 to 210 (an expansion of 37 per cent).
The gap created by the massive sack of bank workers and the attendant challenges appear to have been filled by the proliferation and patronage of Point of Sale (POS) transactions.
Transactions via the medium have continued to rise over the years.
Data obtained from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) quoted by the International Centre Investigation Reporting (ICIR) show that in 2018, the total PoS transaction was N2.3 trillion from 285.9 million transactions.
In 2019, it increased to 438.61 million transactions with a total value of N3. 21trillion. In 2020, transactions rose by 49.51 per cent to 655.75 million, with the total value rising to N4.73 trillion.
Further findings also showed that POS transactions carried out in the first eight months of 2021 stood at N4.06 trillion, representing a 45 per cent increase compared to N2.81 trillion recorded in the correspond ing period of 2020.
According to the data, POS transactions hit its highest height for any eight-month period, increasing by 44.8 per cent and 108 per cent, compared to N2.81 trillion and N1.96 trillion recorded in the similar period of 2020 and 2019 respectively.
Similarly, the volume of POS transactions recorded between January and August 2021 stood at N619.3 million, increasing by 61.8 per cent, compared to the N382.9 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.
It is worth noting that a total of 686,577 POS terminals were deployed nationwide as of August 2021, representing an 84.4 per cent increase from 372,333 recorded in the same period of 2020.
The value of POS transactions in the country for the month of August 2021 stood at N504.88 billion, lower than N554.67 billion recorded in the previous month, while it rose marginally compared to the N503.91 billion carried out in June 2021.
Also, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) data show there were about 307,000 PoS machines in Nigeria as of March 2021, but only 167,000 were active.”
Customers allege underhand practices by banks, PoS agents
The trust reposed in financial institutions in the country is fast fizzling out as the number of customers raising the alarm over fraudulent deductions from their accounts has continued to rise.
Samson, a member of staff of this news medium recently received an alert of N4, 000 from his bank. As he was just wondering how the deduction came about, another debit alert of N5,000 landed through a text message. A total of N9,000 had been inexplicably deducted from his account.
Unfortunately for him, it was a weekend, and that makes it impossible for him to go to the bank to clarify the problem.
“When I tried to find out from them, they didn’t give any meaningful response. I had to go to their facebook account to embarrass them.
“When they saw the message, somebody from the bank called to tell me that the money was locked and that it would be released.
“That was not the first or second time that they would make such illegal deductions from my account.”
On social medium platforms, allegations of theft by various banks are rife.
A tweeter user, Otunba Coffee, tweeting via his handle @OtunbaCoff, said:
“Guys, there’s a high level of coordinated fraud in the banking sector right now. So many customers are getting debited from their accounts and banks are claiming it’s POS transactions even from accounts that barely use their cards.
Banks are not having explanations for these debits and unauthorised transactions. Banks are not safeguarding these funds. They are encouraging the fraud and nobody is talking about it.
“If you have a debit card, your money is not safe. Banks are employing fraudsters. Many of their ATM engineers are installing skimmers in their machines…stealing customer card details.
“The Nigerian banks are stealing from Nigerians and government is not doing anything.If you are fortunate to have insiders in the Nigerian banking system, you’ll know how big and organised their frauds are.
“You have no idea how much data these people have. The people handling your accounts are fraudsters and the system is protecting them. These are issues.”
Replying Otunba’s tweet, Sunday School Teacher told of how his cousin resorted to physical fight with bank officials to get back his money that was illegally deducted.
He said: “The bank remove 10k from my cousin’s account and, exactly like you said, they tagged it “POS transactions”….He went to the bank to fight, I mean physical fist fight, and in less that 12 hours, it was reversed.”
Another tweeter user, Haleemah The Jeweler , @_Olamiji said: “I’ve received so much debits that I don’t even know about. I’ve just not find time to go to bank and because the amounts are not that hurting. I need to pull a call through today. I must get my 2k back.”
Also ruing her experience, Social Prefect
@Ada africa accused an old generation bank of diverting her money. “…Bank staff diverted my money I fixed in their bank total of 1.6million.. and for almost / years I’m still fighting to get my money back. I’m tired and frustrated.”
Aside from fraud perpetrated in banks, findings showed that operators of PoS machines have also devised means of robbing people of their hard earned money. In fact, criminal elements are said to have infiltrated the business, using it as an avenue to fleece innocent citizens of their savings.
Lawrence, a resident of Igando, recalls how a suspect was arrested.
He said: “A lady in our church went to a PoS guy to withdraw money. After the transaction, she later received another alert.
“When she told people about her experience, she was asked to go back to the place and do a fresh withdrawal. When she went back, she had the same experience. It was at that point that the guy was arrested.”
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Godwin Emefiele last year disclosed that at the end of June 2021, commercial banks in Nigeria had refunded N89.2 billion to customers over complaints.
Emefiele made the disclosure during a CBN Fair held simultaneously in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states.
Represented by Mr Osita Nwanisobi, Acting Director, Corporate Communication Department of the CBN, the governor said the cumulative number of complaints from customers of banks as at June was 23,526 while 22,173 were resolved.
Reps order stringent regulations on PoS
Follwing the rising allegations of fraud by citizens, the House of Representatives asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to introduce “stringent regulations” on the operators of point of sale (POS) business in the country.
The legislators passed the resolution during a plenary session following the adoption of a motion sponsored by Jimoh Olajide, a lawmaker from Lagos State.
Speaking on the motion, Olajide said POS businesses are now used to perpetrate fraud. He called for strict regulations on POS operators in the country.
“The point of sale system is where customers make payments for products or services rendered, but due to many factors, the point of sale (POS) has been turned into a lucrative business in Nigeria and has provided jobs for millions of unemployed Nigerians that see it as a good alternative to white-collar jobs in the country,” he said.
“While many Nigerians are making legal money from this lucrative business, some are using it for fraudulent acts to create fake credit alerts to defraud innocent customers hence the need for government intervention to rescue the rising business sector in the country.
“The point of sale (POS) merchants in Nigeria are not only licensed by commercial banks, others, private companies are currently in the business of giving out point of sale (POS) for business purposes thus making the business to be more porous and ambiguous.
“Presently, no financial regulatory bodies in Nigeria can precisely ascertain the total number of point of sale (POS) machines and their operators in the country.
“Some of the POS operators fraudulently charge exorbitant amounts of money from their customers’ bank accounts, while some retain vital information from customer’s ATM cards in the course of making the financial transactions.”
The motion was unanimously adopted after it was put to a voice vote by Idris Wase, the presiding officer.
The parliamentarians mandated the committee on banking and currency to organise a stakeholders’ meeting to address the menace.