How CBN can help customers against illegal bank charges

Barely a week ago, some traders, in a letter to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised alarm over unauthorised charges by commercial banks in the country and sought the intervention of the apex bank. The CBN responded by reminding Nigerians of her Customer Protection Policy, which is simple to understand but difficult to bank […]

Barely a week ago, some traders, in a letter to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised alarm over unauthorised charges by commercial banks in the country and sought the intervention of the apex bank.

The CBN responded by reminding Nigerians of her Customer Protection Policy, which is simple to understand but difficult to bank on.

The policy, which is activated only upon one’s Bank/Financial Institution’s failure to resolve a complaint within the two weeks’ timeline given by the CBN, does not give a time limit within which CBN itself would take to address a complaint. If one has to go to the bank to lodge a complaint, fill a form with repeated pieces of information (information BVN should provide), wait for two weeks or more, then we cannot claim to be on the same page with others. The two options given by CBN –  letter writing through email or form filling at any of its branches – are difficult for most account holders in Nigeria.

I wonder why the CBN  is yet to come up with a mobile application to help resolve customer-related concerns. To ensure timely registration of complaints and their subsequent solutions, there should be an easier platform such as a mobile application. The application should have different sections or options, which can be easily selected. It could be in form of Google Form; simple and easy. This is better than essay writing over N1,000 or arbitrary N50 deduction that is a  common experience among bank customers.

 

 Uthman Qasim wrote from Abuja