The Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday directed all Deposit Money Banks and other financial institutions to settle customers’ complaints on issues of overcharge, unauthorised deductions and other matters within two weeks. The Head of Complaints Management Division, Mr. Tajudeen Ahmed, issued the directive in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja. He explained that the move was to ensure that the excess and arbitrary charges are eradicated.
“The consumer protection department issued guidelines to banks dated August 16, 2011, directing all banks and other financial institutions to resolve all customer complaints within two weeks of receipt. Before the expiration of that complaint, the financial institution is expected to be engaging the customer on a continuous basis to update him or her on the status of the complaint.
If it is not resolved within the deadline given, then such a person is encouraged to draw the attention of Central Bank of Nigeria to the complaint,” he added.
He urged bank customers dissatisfied with the handling of their complaints to write the Director Consumer Protection Department, send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the nearest CBN branch.
“The CBN continually engages the banks to find out if their conduct and practices are fair to their customers in order to stimulate people’s confidence in the banking system. Non-adherence to that normally results to regulatory sanctions, as the case may be,” he said.
He also frowned at the setting of withdrawal limit on ATM withdrawals.
I have also observed and noted this. Don’t forget that at the beginning, it wasn’t like this. Over time, we started having this problem. One of the reasons is that the quantum of N500 denomination is much more than that of N1,000 denomination.
When we approached the banks about these problems, they said the machines become easily faulty when it is set to dispense up to N30,000 to N40,000 units. However, CBN has directed that the machines that allow payment of up to N30,000 to N50,000 should be installed. This is still ongoing. The Banking and Payment Department of the CBN is championing it,” he said.
