‘Attend to their complaints’ – CBN calls out banks for neglecting customers amid refund claims

Frustrated bank customers tag CBN on social media

Many of the banks’ customers took to social media to ask the CBN to compel them to refund the monies debited from their accounts.

The exasperated customers said they took the measure as the last resort as the banks have remained unyielding to their complaints over an extended period. Some customers named the banks in their posts, tagging the CBN to prevail on the banks to refund their money.

They also claimed on social media that the banks’ customer care desks turned deaf ears to their requests.

An X user, @BoyeGift, and a customer of the United Bank of Africa (UBA) asked for a refund of his money after a failed transaction.

CBN lashes out at banks for neglecting customers on social media Replying to the customers’ post, the apex bank asked the customer fulfillment centre of the UBA to address the issue raised by the client.

On October 27, 2023, the CBN asked Guaranty Trust Bank to address a customer’s refund request.

Analyst says CBN’s FX payment will improve economy as naira nears N1k a dollar Zenith, Access Bank, 3 others receive 6.8 million complaints from customers in six months Five commercial banks received 6,865,217 complaints as of June 30, 2023, a yearly increase of 117% from the 3,156,704 complaints received in the same period in 2022, a Legit.ng earlier report said.

Financial claims from the complaints in the first six months of 2023 stood at N326.11 billion, a 289% rise compared with N83.78 billion paid in claims in June 2022.

The data was contained in the reviewed Lenders’ report obtained from the Nigerian Exchange Limited, which includes UBA, Fidelity Bank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, and Guaranty Trust Bank.

UBA records the highest number of customer complaints

UBA recorded the highest customer complaints of 1,930,518 as of June 2023 from the 475,121 recorded in the same period in 2022. The number marked a 306.32% increase and the highest among the banks.

The amount involved in the complaints was N125.26 billion from N4.39 billion as of June 2022. Access Bank comes next with a 132.25% increase in customer complaints between June 2022 and June 2023.

The bank’s complaints rose to 3,222 from 1,387,702, with N136.75 billion from the N57.87 billion recorded in 2022. Fidelity Bank also recorded an increase of 77.69% rise in customer complaints, with 1,010,586 from 568,738.

The amount claimed stood at N55.20 billion. Zenith Bank’s customer complaints rose 12.55% to 247,685 from 220,067 as of June 2022. The claim amount from the bank amounted to N8.38 billion, a 66% increase from the N5.04 billion recorded in the same period in 2022.