CBN Releases Reporting Channels for Customers as Nigerian Banks Battle Network Challenges
- The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has asked bank customers affected by the ongoing system upgrades to contact them
- The apex bank provided contact details to the banking public, including emails and phone number
- Several Nigerian banks have given notices of downtime in recent weeks, which caused transaction hitches
Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment and the economy for over a decade.
As Nigerian banks migrate to more secure platforms to protect depositors’ funds, customers have asked financial institutions to compensate them for losses incurred during network downtime.
A previous report by Legit.ng disclosed that about four commercial banks in Nigeria issued notices of system upgrades in the past weeks, which has caused customers to have trouble carrying out transactions.
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Four banks give notices
The banks’ tech upgrades in the past few weeks caused severe concerns to customers, sending panic into bank customers in rural areas.
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The situation is set to get worse as more banks announce upgrading their technology infrastructure in the coming weeks.
Zenith Bank apologises to customers
According to reports, Sterling Bank customers were the first after the bank began migrating its systems to a new locally-developed core banking application, causing disruptions that lasted for days.
Zenith Bank disclosed on October 1, 2024, that it was undertaking routine IT infrastructure maintenance to improve service quality.
Media sources disclosed that the tier-1 bank migrated its core banking platform from Phoenix to Oracle’s Flexcube, thereby shutting out many customers as the operations lasted several days.
The bank later apologised for the inconvenience it caused its customers.
GTBank and Access send notices of downtime
These disruptions have heightened tensions, with some customers protesting due to the prolonged delays in accessing their funds.
As Nigerians tried to overcome the disruptions, Access Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank announced planned IT upgrades, which might cause prolonged downtime.
GTBank said it will transition to a new and solid Finacle Core Banking Applications Systems suite.
Due to ongoing routine maintenance, the bank said customers cannot access its digital channels for 11 hours.
Reports say the bank is migrating its core banking platform to Finacle, an Infosys-built software.
Access Bank announced on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, that it will upgrade its systems from Saturday, October 12, to Sunday, October 13, 2024.
It stated that its mobile application, Internet Banking Platform, and ATMs will experience temporary service disruptions.
It directed its customers to use alternative platforms, such as SMS-based, for transactions.
CBN issues contact details
However, the Central Bank of Nigeria asked bank customers to complain to the banks and gave them about two weeks to resolve the challenges, the failure of which it would wade in.
CBN said:
“If after lodging your complaint, your bank still fails to engage you and resolve the complaint within two weeks, you have the right to escalate your complaint to the Consumer Protection Department (CPD) of the CBN.
The bank asked customers to contact CPD via email at cpd@cbn.gov.ng or contact@cbn.gov.ng, call 234 7002255226, or directly complain on its website.
Nigerian banks sack 84 employees
Legit.ng previously reported that the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) report on fraud and forgeries in Nigerian banks in the first half of 2024 revealed that at least 105 bank employees were involved in fraud.
However, this figure was a 34.38% decrease from the 160 employees involved in fraud cases in 2023.
The report said that despite the decline in staff involvement in fraud, the total amount lost to fraud cases rose by 380.13%, up from N12.33 billion between January and June 2023 to N59.2 billion in the same period this year.
Proofread by Kola Muhammed, journalist and copyeditor at Legit.ng
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Source: Legit.ng
