Guest Columnist
By Seun Elere
A visit to the social media pages of most of the commercial banks (including that of the Central Bank of Nigeria) in Nigeria will tell a story of how frustrated bank customers feel with the services of some of these banks. From failed transactions that were not reversed timely to wrongly charged transactions, there are even instances of fraudulent deductions that bank customers feel that their banks did not act on time to prevent. The complaints are endless, and bank users continue to feel helpless.
Considering the economic dimensions of the country, with an increasing rate of poverty, many of these bank users rely on their little savings to get by. I remember one Friday, awhile back, I was in one of the commercial banks and a woman rushed in pleading for the bank staff to help her. Upon closer interrogation, I found that she had used the bank’s automated teller machine (ATM) to withdraw NGN20,000.00, and she was debited, but the cash was not dispensed. Unfortunately, that was the only money in the account, and she was on her way to the market to buy food for herself and the family.
Guess what? The bank staff asked her to wait for 24 hours for the reversal or come back the following Monday to complain if the money wasn’t reversed. The helplessness on the woman’s face made me wonder if she even had any food at home to last her the weekend in case the money wasn’t reversed within the 24 hours promised by the bank.
This is the sad tale of many Nigerians across the country and until the CBN rises up to the occasion, the country’s cashless drive would continue to be an illusion and the survival of many banks would continue to be threatened by the increasing growth of banking alternative platforms like Opay, Moniepoint, Palmpay, etc., that have graciously and ingeniously come to the rescue of many Nigerians with seamless banking services and ease of access to funds through loans, etc.
Of concern is the seeming helplessness that greets them from the Central Bank of Nigeria, which is supposed to regulate the affairs of commercial banks and provide the necessary succour for their ills. Take, for instance, the dealings of the loan sharks that have sent many Nigerians to their early graves and depression. It took the intervention of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), under the then executive vice chairman of the Bar, Babatunde Irukera, to usher some sanity into the operations of these loan firms, while the CBN continued in its slumber. Also, I havent been lucky with a response to several (complaints) emails to the CBN’s consumer protection department (CPD).
Prompted by my prolonged and unsatisfactory experiences with two banks after several emails, calls and messages on X (Twitter), as well as lack of response to my several complaints by the CBN, I conducted a quick survey to assess how Nigerian commercial banks responded to consumer inquiries and complaints, especially during the Christmas holiday on December 25, 2024. The survey was intended to ascertain the wait time between when a request/message is sent by consumers and the response from the banks.
The study was limited to two complaint channels only (email and direct messaging (DM) on Twitter. During the study, 25 commercial banks were assessed. The bank names and email contacts were extracted from the website of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) platform and accessed via https://ndic.gov.ng/list-of-insured-institutions/list-of-commercial-banks/ between 8am and 9am on December 25, 2024. While 24 commercial banks were sent the same email at almost the same time, only 13 of them were contacted via DM on Twitter. The study relied solely on the information provided on the NDIC website.
The subject of the email read “Urgent Complaint and Inquiry” and the body read, “I have an urgent complaint and inquiry to make. I will appreciate your timely response.” However, on Twitter on the other, the Hello was sent to the DM of the 10 banks. The email was sent at around 9.03am on December 25, 2024, while messages via Twitter DM were sent between 10am and 12 noon on the same date and responses were monitored till December 28, 2024.
The study was based on my assumption that the banks would experience a surge in complaints via the selected channels on December 25 due to the public holiday and increased transactions on their (banks) electronic channels during the period. I had also assumed that the banks, experientially, would have made adequate provisions for more customer representatives to attend to complaints via the selected platforms. It is also assumed that banks should ordinarily respond to complaints within an hour of receiving such a complaint.
This study was intended to provide empirical information for the responsiveness of commercial banks to consumers’ complaints. The study aims to improve the customer experience and promote fair treatment for all bank users. The study is also limited in scope in that it only assessed my personal experience. There might be a need to sample and elicit the experiences of other bank users across additional complaint channels to effectively arrive at a generalized conclusion. It is also important to state that this study only assesses the time it takes a commercial bank in Nigeria to respond to a consumer’s complaint and not the actual time it would take to resolve it.
The study found that out of the 25 commercial banks accessed on NDIC’s website, two banks did not indicate their email addresses and messages message sent to four of the banks returned undelivered while email to the remaining 19 banks was successful. This means that 24% of the commercial banks in Nigeria have not adequately socialized their correct email addresses to the public. The fact that this information was accessed on the website of one of the bank regulators in Nigeria makes it the more worrisome.
Forty-four per cent(11) of the banks did not respond to the email. This number includes two banks without an email address and four banks with probably incorrect email addresses (Undeliverable). The remaining 14 banks responded to the email inquiry, albeit in a varying period of response. Auto-generated (auto-reply) emails were not considered as an actual response because it was observed that some banks sent auto-replies but never followed up with the customer for further assistance. As such, only responses with clear intent to resolve the sender’s queries were considered as an actual response.
Only three (21%) of the 14 banks (that answered the email) responded within 30 minutes of mail receipt. One bank responded within two minutes, demonstrating high efficiency and commitment for timely treatment of complaints and queries. These attributes were also demonstrated by two other banks, as they both responded within 30 minutes of the email. Inversely, two other banks responded after two days of mail, while 50% of the banks that answered the mail did so between one and 10 hours of receipt.
It is, however, noteworthy that only two banks sent follow-up emails requesting further information on the complaint after the initial response to the consumer’s email. In 24 hours, one of the two banks sent two follow-up emails.
Similarly, of the 12 banks contacted via Twitter, nine of them were easily accessible to anyone, while three banks could only receive DMs from their followers. It is, however, unclear why a bank will limit DM to only followers. Although it was not a primary focus of the study, it was observed that CBN, unlike its India, Kenya etc. counterparts, deactivated the Direct Message function on its Twitter handle.
Out of the nine banks contacted via Twitter, eight of them responded to the message, albeit with varying times of response. Even though one bank responded in record time via email, the bank did not respond to the consumer’s message on Twitter. Two banks responded within 10 minutes of receipt of the message; another responded within 20 minutes, others within one hour, five hours and 24 hours.
When compared, responsiveness to email and Twitter DM showed a positive correlation. On Twitter, 56% of the banks responded after one hour and 50% of the banks responded to email within the same timeframe. This indicates that on average, consumers can only expect a response from the bank after one hour of submitting a complaint via email or Twitter DM. The finding also showed that consumers have a higher chance of getting quick help on Twitter than via email. Three of the banks that did not answer the email, responded to the customer’s message on Twitter. Response time of some banks also reduced drastically on Twitter.
It was observed that while some commercial banks exhibit high levels of responsiveness, others show significant delays in addressing customer concerns. The disparity in response times, especially during a period of increased demand, underscores the need for banks to improve their customer service strategies and ensure that adequate resources are allocated to handling complaints promptly, regardless of the time of year.
This seeming lackluster attitude to consumer’s plights and complaints by commercial banks, couple with the apparent lack of sanction by the CBN may continue to threaten the financial inclusion drive by the country and ultimately threaten the survival of some of commercial banks.
In the face of all of these, one can only hope that the CBN, under the current leadership of Yemi Cardoso, will act proactively in protecting the rights of bank users in Nigeria by publicly sanctioning erring financial institutions and recommending adequate compensations for consumers that are victims of poor services.
• Elere, a PhD student, is a public affairs analyst and social inclusion advocate