By Linus Aleke
Commercial banks, otherwise known as Deposit Money Banks now give priority attention to Point of Sale (POS) agents, while abandoning other customers to suffer untold hardship, ThisNigeria investigation has revealed.
It was gathered that customers are often left under unbearable climatic conditions as Abuja weather fluctuates between harsh sun and wild and windy rains while bank officials attend to POS agents.
Our investigation also revealed that bank customers are made to face degrading and dehumanizing treatment, just to redirect them to patronize POS agents who are used as front to exploit the customers.
An aggrieved customer, James Nwabueze told ThisNigeria that banks, now make it extremely difficult for customers to gain access to banking halls especially, in suburbs, and satellite towns near the Federal Capital Territory, including Mararaba, Kubwa, Karu, Masaka, Ado, New Nyanya, and even Keffi.
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According to Nwabueze, while customers are kept in canopies under harsh weather for hours on end, POS agents enjoy free access without delay to the banking halls, thereby forcing people to rely more on POS services than banking services.
“Some of us have been here since 9am and yet have not been allowed to enter to transact our businesses. They are hiding under the pretence of Covid19 to keep people out of banking halls. But just watch, these POS agents just walk in and out freely. And some customers considered special is also allowed with the excuse that they are agents. The suffering is just too much, under this harsh sun, imagine spending two hours waiting to be allowed to enter and lay complaints about my lost ATM card. This is so discouraging, and let me shock you, this is what you in almost all the banks along these roads up to Masaka” he said.
Further findings revealed that the management of commercial banks in these areas has devised a subtle means of coercing customers to patronize POS operators, instead of coming to the banking hall to do their transactions for pecuniary gains.
ThisNigeria can also report that most of these banks have laid off some of their staff, in a desperate mood to exploit customers under the guise of POS.
POS means, “point of sale, especially, in a place where a customer executes the payment for goods or services and where sales taxes may become payable”. A POS transaction may occur in person or online, with receipts generated either in print or electronically.
Regrettably, commercial banks are turning these point of sales into mini commercial banks where customers can now pay money into their accounts, send money to relatives and make withdrawals, using Automated Teller Machine Card.
A customer is charged between N100 to N300 for withdrawing a paltry sum of N10, 000.
What this means is that if you are sending a hundred thousand to someone, you will part with N1, 000 as charges for the transaction.
It is on the premise of the foregoing that banks now prefer that their customer patronize POS operators instead of coming to the baking hall where most of their staff have been laid off because of the new exploitative system.
Banks in other climes woo customers with mouth-watering interests in the money they deposit in their branches. Also, customers and investors are encouraged to take a loan at a single-digit interest rate.
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In Nigeria, the reverse is the case as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the apex bank and regulator of commercial banks close its eyes while commercial banks formulate all manners of hidden charges to pilfer money kept in their custody for safety purposes.
Nwabueze further observed that in Nigeria, the interest rate for loans from commercial banks to support business is double digits with other strenuous condition that makes the loan inaccessible.
“Because of these inordinate quests to feed fat on depositors’ money, all commercial banks in Nigeria have re-programmed their automated teller machine not to dispense more than N10,000 for re-programming of the machines is aimed at exploiting depositors who want to withdraw a large sum of money using the new technology. The re-programming is aimed at charging customers N26 per N10,000 you withdrew, using ATM.
“The banks also put a daily withdrawal limit on ATM to N10, 000 and expect customers to do this withdrawal in trenches of N10, 000each. Even if you want to charge N26 per N10, 000 a customer withdraws, why not allow the customer to withdraw the N100, 000 once and then charge him instead of wasting his time on the machine,” he queried.
A First Bank customer, Mr. Joseph Amako (not real name), for security reasons, shared his bitter experience at the bank’s branch in Mararaba, near the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with our correspondent.
According to him, “These banks are now treating their customers so badly. Imagine what I passed through today at the First Bank branch in Mararaba. The security locked us out of the bank premises under very scourging sun.
“We stood under the sun for one hour before we were allowed into the bank premises to start another round of waiting but this time around under a canopy. Strangely, some were allowed direct access to the banking hall on arrival. They are not stopped at the gate and they are not compelled like us to wait under the canopy.
“When we were coerced to wait for another 45 minutes under the canopy, I protested vehemently to the security men and they told me that they are acting on the instructions from bank management. The security men told us that they were instructed by the management to allow POS operators unrestricted access to the banking hall but that is not the same with us as we have to obey the new protocols.”
“I was at loss as to what they meant by new protocols. But when we were finally allowed into the banking hall, I discovered that most of the cubicles were empty and there was a long queue. They now have only few staff and that explained why they want people to patronise POS operators instead of coming to the bank.
“You know that they now make more money using the POS operators instead of employing more staff and opening more beaches to attend to their increasing customers. If you go inside the banking hall to withdraw or transfer two hundred thousand naira, the official charges are less than N100, 000 but when you use POS, the charge is more than N1,000. So banks make more money using POS operators as fronts than they will make through official channels”.
Another aggrieved customer who did not want his name in print told ThisNigeria that POS operators are just smokescreen, as the real owners are top bank officials who use them to enrich selves.
“The unfortunate aspect of this new system is that customers are the worst losers at the end of the day as they unknowingly face double charges at the end of the transaction. The POS operators charge them for every transaction, while the banks also charge their account for the same transaction,” he lamented.
It is, however, unfortunate that this aberration is happing under a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who is aspiring for the number one position in the country, come 2023.
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While the country is groaning under escalating unemployment rate, the banks are allowed to retrench their staff with impunity to swell the number of already frightening joblessness in Nigeria.
Some economic experts may argue that the new system of POS is creating employment for Nigeria but it is more of robbing Peter to pay Paul and bankers are sacked in their numbers and opportunities are created for POS operators.
Statistics reveal that “Nigeria with an unemployment rate of 10.4% in Q4 2015 has a better unemployment rate than reported in 66 countries but worse than 111 countries, including 23 African countries which have unemployment rates lower than 10.4%.”.
Unfortunately, in the first quarter of 2021, a report published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on its website noted that Nigeria’s Unemployment Rate has risen from 27.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, to 33 per cent.
Also, aside from making it the second Highest on Global List, the NBS report, going by analysis, shows that ‘more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s working-age population is younger than 34.
“Unemployment for people aged 15 to 24 stood at 53.4 per cent in the fourth quarter and at 37.2 per cent for people aged 25 to 34. The jobless rate for women was 35.2 per cent compared with 31.8 per cent for men,” the data concluded.
