As complaint by the various users of financial services in Nigeria continue to increase on the social media space due to the slow response time by the deposit money banks, the Consumer Awareness and Financial Enlightenment Initiative (CAFEI) was recently launched in Lagos to address consumers’ complaint especially in the financial sector and ensure that response time are drastically reduced in order to rendered satisfactory services to the banking public.
The initiative that has been endorsed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) will expectedly drive consumer awareness of financial institutions offerings in the market and boost service delivery across the industry value-chain.
Debola Osibogun, the President of CAFEI, a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) initiative created to serve the financial sector said the initiative is aimed at driving financial literacy and consumer engagement in Nigeria, noting that the initiative would elevate consumer literacy in the country.
“Our mandate is to drive consumer education in furtherance of the society here accountability is embed in our DNA and a country where contracts, written or implied, are enforced for the benefits of ensuring shared responsibility as well as prosperity,” said Osibogun.
According to Osibogun, her engagement with stakeholders in the financial sector shows that individuals, organisations and regulators are genuinely concerned about forging inclusive progress and sustainably shared prosperity, hence the initiative would work in collaboration with industry experts to improve the delivery of goods and services across the country especially in the financial sector through its annual symposium.
Uche Messiah Olowu, President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN), while speaking on the initiative expressed the desire of the institute to collaborate with deposit money banks to improve consumers’ engagement the across value-chain of the industry.
Olowu, who noted that he was not aware that banks are not responsive to customers’ complaints on social media, opined that the banking industry is a free market system. According to him, if a bank does not respond to complaints, consumers have better choice to go to where quality services are being rendered. “This means that it has to create effectiveness where the ills of the institutions are highlighted and thrown that if you don’t react effectively well.”
