Nigerian banks, including Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Unity Bank, Fidelity Bank and United Bank for Africa, have announced the closure of their branches today and tomorrow.
In a notice sent to customers, the banks explained that the closure is in observance of the public holiday for the 2024 Eid-el-Adha which means the festival of sacrifice.
On June 7, the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, declared Sunday, June 16, as Eid-el-Kabir day after affirming that Friday is the first day of Dhul Hijjah. The Sultan disclosed this in a statement by the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Religious Affairs to the Sultanate Council, Sambo Junaid, in Sokoto State.
In compliance, Nigerian banks have sent messages to customers informing them of branch closures for the Eid-el-Adha celebration.
Affirming that regular operations will resume on June 19, the financial institutions urges customers to make use of alternative electronic channels.
However, these electronic channels are frequently marred by failed transactions, network downtime and wrong debits, a situation that recently prompted the House of Representatives to call on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to direct banks to work on their systems so as to mitigate failed transactions as well as immediately reverse failed transactions without the customers’ prompting.
The Green Chamber also urged the apex bank to direct banks to reverse customers’ funds within the stipulated periods whether or not the customers lodge complaints.
The resolution of the House was sequel to the adoption of a motion on the need to restrain commercial banks from holding funds reversal beyond the date prescribed by the CBN, which was moved at plenary by Hon. Emmanuel Ukpong–Udo.
Presenting the motion, Ukpong–Udo said according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, over 135, 500,000 Nigerians use banks.
He added that the CBN released a press release on June 8, 2020, revising timelines for reversals and resolution of refund complaints.
Additionally, he stressed that one of the CBN’s resolutions was on failed “On-Us” ATM transactions (when customers use their cards on their bank’s ATMs) shall be instantly reversed from the current timeline of three days, and where instant reversal fails due to any technical issue or system glitch, the timeline for manual reversal shall not exceed 24 hours.
The lawmaker said the CBN also resolved that refunds for failed “Not-on-US” ATM transactions (where customers use their cards on other banks’ ATM) shall not exceed four hours from the current three to five days.
Ukpong–Udo added that the CBN further resolved that resolution of disputed/failed POS or Web transactions shall be concluded within 72 hours from the current five days.
He noted that the CBN also resolved that all banks were directed to resolve the backlog of all ATM, POS, and Web customer refunds within two weeks starting June 8, 2020.
However, most deposit money banks have been violating these rules without proper penalty.
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