Network glitches: Banks contend with angry customers
- Fidelity Bank nearly grounded
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Customer surge is expected to inundate banking halls this weekend following large spill over of inconclusive deals at most commercial banks in the country as they battle network providers over billions of Naira in unsettled mobile and online banking services.
Financial dealings which ran to halt at some Nigerian banks at on Tuesday have left most customers counting days to conclude pending transactions as commercial banks reopen for few hours this weekend.
The Oracle Today reports that millions of people in the Nigerian community of mobile communications services subscribers have been contending with poor quality services since the Christmas season set in, resulting in breaks in call connectivity and low speed internet transmissions.
However, the disruptions hit most in financial transactions especially at the banks where interbank services were technically grounded on account of poor network. The situation has left most customers rushing to agent bankers and financial technology (fintech) providers for quicker cash transactions. But the services available at the bank agents are limited to personal accounts and cash transactions.
Issues of corporate banking, cheque clearance, bank orders, salary payments and customer services were completely grounded at some commercial banks that solely rely on traditional GSM services providers.
At some branches of Fidelity Bank visited by our correspondent on Christmas eve, frustrated customers who were unable to transact on their accounts besieged the helpless customer service desks where heated arguments were staged.
The hostile arguments which resulted from ready-made excuses of network outage centered on whom falls the responsibility to provide the banks with good internet services as angry customers railed.
As at 4 pm on Tuesday, angry customers were seen trooping out some branches of Fidelity Bank branches in Lagos, swearing to be early on Friday when the bank advised them to “check again.”
However, the case was different at some other banks that switched to niche service providers including the Starlink. Thus, whereas customers of Fidelity Bank ran helter-skelter to send money and make payments, some other banks made the Christmas eventful for their customers.
It is suspected that the banks relying on the mobile telecommunications companies in the country may have been suffering glitches over lingering dispute about outstanding N250 billion Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) charges.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had before the Christmas season directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and Mobile Network Operators to settle the long-standing dispute over the USSD debt.
In the joint regulatory which was contained in December 20, the CBN and NCC directed that 60 per cent of all pre-API invoices must be paid as full and final settlement.
According to the directives, banks and telecom firms are required to agree on payment plans, either a lump sum or an instalment, by January 2, 2025. If instalment payments are chosen, they must be completed by July 2, 2025.
