Customers groan under banks’ e-transaction failures

Nigerian bank customers who needed cash to meet their financial needs were disappointed during the holidays as the lenders’ electronic channels failed this time.

Investigation by BusinessDay revealed customers rushing to the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to withdraw money, after encountering failures on other electronic channels.

This resulted in long queues at the banks’ branches where the ATMs are located and, most painfully, some of the ATMs were not functional at the time.

“Banking app has been crazy. I think it’s a general problem, so hopefully it would be resolved tomorrow,” said a customer who is based in Port Harcourt and has tried sending money to a relative in Lagos but was not successful.

Another customer based in Surulere, Lagos, said he used his mobile banking App to transfer money to his relative twice and the transactions were reversed.

However, some of the banks sent a message to their customers apologising for the transaction failures.

“Dear esteemed customer, we sincerely apologise for the delay you many have experienced in processing transactions on our digital channels. This is due to a challenge with our national switching service platform designed for facilitating electronic payments. We are working to resolve this quickly,” one of the tier-one banks stated.

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Uju Ogubunka, president, Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN), who could not ascertain the immediate cause of the transaction failures, said banks should not impose additional charges on those transactions that failed.

He guessed the reason for this could be as a result of the holiday as banks may not have put the necessary measures in place or there may have been system/power failure.

Whatever be the case, he said the affected customers can go to their respective bank branches and complain on Thursday as the banks resume duty.

Ogubunka admitted that the development can impact negatively on the cash-less drive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.