An ICT consultant, Mr. Nonso Okoye, has lamented the freezing of his accounts across all Nigerian banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) since September 2021.
Okoye said one of his banks, Sterling, revealed to him that they wrote the apex bank to place his Bank Verification Number (BVN) on a watch list after a certain amount was withdrawn from his account by unknown persons.
He lamented that even after the system glitch, which caused the debit on his account was resolved, the CBN was yet to lift the ban on his accounts, causing him untold hardship and inability to attend to some sick relatives, which resulted in the death one.
He recounted his travails saying: “Some personal experiences in the recent past have given me reasons to be extremely bothered about the credibility of the banking institutions in Nigeria.
“Most times, focus is placed on identifying financial crimes perpetrated by fraudsters, however, it is worrisome to note that little or no attention is paid to some individuals who have been employed to provide services in banking institutions yet are at the forefront of committing grievous financial crimes.
“On September 14, 2021, I received a notification from Sterling Bank that a new internet banking application had been launched and as their esteemed customer, I was advised to install for upgrade.
“I noticed that after installation there was the unusual process of the application automatically creating a mobile wallet for the account. I tried using my card afterwards but it wasn’t functioning, I decided to pay for a service rendered to me via transfer, using the application without success.
“Subsequently, I could no longer log into the application to access my account. I reached out to the Customer Care representative and was reassured that it was routine procedure and the account would be active in no distant time.
“The bank stated that the policy during onboarding of new applications was to restrict transactions in such accounts within 24hrs for security purposes, to ensure the account owner is the person truly performing the transactions.”
Okoye continued: “The login error continued into the next day, and I had no other choice but to visit the nearest Sterling Bank branch. On arrival, I was informed that the systems were experiencing a network glitch, hence, the difficulty in accessing the application.
“According to the representative who attended to me, it was a general challenge. During that period, complaints from customers ranged from having failed transactions to malfunctioning or even disappearance of the mobile wallets.”
Okoye said when he later gained access into the sterling internet banking app few days after, no transactions could be performed. He tried to transfer some money between two sterling accounts and even the mobile wallet but all to no avail.
But few days later, he said he received a debit alert of N132,335.58, which was the amount in one of the accounts. He said he raised concerns and the customer care representative apologised and promised to look into it, but he noticed that the account balance showed he was rather owing the bank NGN167,660.15.
He lamented that since September till date, all his accounts have been blocked, and even though Sterling bank stated that it wrote to the CBN to remove his account on a watch list, letters to the apex bank to unblock his accounts have been ignored, just as Sterling bank has not made much efforts to get the CBN to unblock the accounts.
The IT expert said his bank, sterling bank asked him to pay N200,000 into his account to defray the over N160,000 debit on his account, which he did, but was also withdrawn immediately.
He told journalists that he had contemplated engaging a lawyer to sue the bank, but fears that it may be a waste of scarce resources as the bank may be more equipped for legal action than he is. When THISDAY contacted the customer care of the bank, their lines rang severally without answers.
