GT Bank is arguably one of Nigeria’s biggest and most impressive bank by many standards.
Over the years GT bank has become my Bank!
GT Bank is arguably one of Nigeria’s biggest and most impressive bank by many standards.
Over the years GT bank has become my Bank!
Recently, I noticed a NGN100 charge on our corporate account for every cash withdrawal made on the account and wondered why this would be as I could not recall being previously advised of this charge.
After a transaction at the Ogunnusi Road, Ojodu branch of the branch about two weeks ago, I decided to get clarifications on the unadvised charge from my Bank.
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My interaction with a Customer Service Officer made me realise that this was a charge for any cash withdrawal below NGN40, 000. However, She did nothing to convince me why GT Bank had to make this charge. Rather, she told me that this deduction has been on for months and it wasn’t the Bank’s fault that I just noticed.
Not satisfied, I requested to see the Branch Operations Manager. His explanation really got me thinking and asking more questions.
He explained that we had to pay that charge for contributing to the congestion in their banking halls. He said the bank had provided other electronic channels of transacting and if we still had to withdraw cash from the banking halls, then we had to pay NGN100 ‘congestion’ charge.
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My explanation that these withdrawals were third party cheques issued by the company for payment of salaries to drivers, cleaners, security personnel and other petty payments did not impress him. He simply said ‘we received approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria to take this charge’ – I wondered if receiving CBN approval made it right! Furthermore, he insisted that by giving people cheques below NGN40,000 to withdraw cash from the Bank instead of payments into their accounts, we were contributing to the congestion in their banking hall and we should be charged for this. I tried to explain that I didn’t understand why we should be responsible to make sure that people receiving such payments be made to open bank accounts. Yes, we can encourage them to do so, but when they don’t should we be made to pay for it?
My observation is, it appears that they do not bother about the queues outside the bank, because evidence suggests that most times GT Bank ATM queues are longer that the queues in the banking halls.
I strongly suggest that they should address issues associated with ATM functioning at optimal levels rather than making customers pay for a problem they caused – at least all their marketing and advertising efforts were to attract customers.
With the yet to be fully implemented CBN cash-lite policy, cash withdrawal below NGN150,000 is still allowed without any penalty, but my bank would charge me a ‘decongestion’ fee for withdrawals below NGN40,000 and encourage me to withdraw above NGN40,000 by not charging me.
The fact that approval was received from the CBN does not make the charge right. My bank should realise that Bank branches in high density areas will for now always have over crowded banking halls and such branches could be designated as ‘High Density Area Branch’ (HDAB) and a notice could be placed to alert customers to expect to spend a little more time while at these branches.
It is sad that the NGN100 decongestion charge hasn’t translated to ‘faster’ service in these branches. You still end up spending as much as one hour on queues and still get charged NGN100. I wish this extra charge translated to more teller points than just a penalty for congestion.
GT Bank has no doubt introduced several innovative channels, but these channels are supported by ICT platforms that are still at a growing stage in this part of the world. People still earn and need petty cash for daily transactions and that’s why the CBN in their wisdom has placed a limit of NGN150, 000.00 which to me makes a lot of sense. My bank should allow for some maturity and appreciation of the innovative platforms, like ensuring at least 95% up time for ATM’s. It is not news that we currently do not have enough ATM’s to serve the rising banking population in Nigeria. Internet usage is gathering momentum and affiliated services like internet banking will only take time before it is fully appreciated. The banking industry has gone through several circles and still making efforts to reach a lot of the unbanked. It doesn’t sound ethical to ‘charge’ the banked for the people who are still unbanked or who earn ‘petty’ cash that they do not even have any need to keep it in banks as they spend all their income in one day paying for bills they have incurred in the previous month.
While the ‘congestion’ charge would sound innovative, at least it swells the banks profit, it would make more impact on the customer that the bank serves if this ‘charge’ would lead to ‘faster’ processing, so customers would have to spend less time standing on queues in and out of the banking halls.
For now it only appears as an innovative way of carrying the burden of growth without any considerable impact on my bank’s bottom-line.
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