After the aftermath of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guidelines on the resolution of customers’ complaints, a total of 9 banks have refunded a total of N36.12 billion to their customers between 2020 and 2021.
The 9 banks namely are; Zenith Bank Plc, Access Holdings Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Plc (GTCO), Fidelity Bank Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, and FCMB Group Plc.
The Central Bank of Nigeria had disclosed that the total refund by banks to customers as of December 2021 was at N95.2 billion and urged customers to allow banks to resolve their complaints within 2 weeks.
“If after lodging your complaint and your bank fails to engage you and resolve the complaint within two-week as provided for in the ATM help desk Circular, you have the right to escalate your complaint to the Consumer Protection Department (CPD) of the CBN.
“You can only direct your complaints to CPD upon the failure of your Bank/Financial Institution to resolve your complaint within the two-week timeline given by the CBN.” the CBN said.
The data collected from the banks’ financial statements showed a large improvement in the number of payments by the 9 banks within the period of review.
Stakeholders have described the move as a timely response from banks to their customers’ complaints. Meanwhile, some argued that banks were merely paying for their inefficiency by setting aside a huge amount of money to settle customers since the need for a refund wouldn’t have arisen if banks had done their homework very well.
Also, some of the banks are putting in efforts to attend to customers’ complaints in no time as competition favors banks with quality service.
For instance, the management of Access Bank said it is committed to its core value of passion for customers, stressing that it prides itself on providing exceptional services to customers at all times.
According to Access Bank, “At the same time, given the number and complexity of financial transactions that take place every day, the bank recognizes that there will inevitably be occasions when mistakes and misunderstandings occur.
In such situations, Access Bank has encouraged customers to bring their concerns to the attention of the bank for prompt resolution. Every day, bank customers have one complaint or the other regarding their banking experience.
A greater number of consumer complaints about banking services relate to excess charges, Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) issues, Point of Sale (PoS), Bank Verification Number (BVN), cheque-related issues, and fraud among others.
As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced banks to review their operations, complaints about the associated delays in banks have continued to rise.
However, the reality is that some banks’ ATM galleries are always packed full with people spending hours on end just to withdraw cash from the machines.
