Abuja customers shun ‘No Banking Day’ protest

Bank customers in the federal capital territory shunned the ‘No Banking Day’ protest called by the Consumer Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria (CAFON) and the Coalition of Nigerian Consumer Protection Association.

The two bodies had declared March 1 “No Banking Day” nationwide and called on customers to boycott banking halls in protest against alleged arbitrary charges being imposed on customers.

They asked customers not to enter banking halls, make transfers, deposits or use their cards for any transaction throughout the day.

However, in all the banks visited by NAN correspondents, customers were seen carrying out different transactions.

Some of the banks are: Zenith, Eco Bank, Fidelity Bank, First City Monument Bank, United Bank for Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank, Diamond Bank and Stanbic IBTC bank.

Joseph Agu, a customer at the Zenith Bank in Garki Area 8, said he was not aware of the protest by the civil society groups.

Agu said even if he was aware, it would not have stopped him from coming to the bank because he had a very important transaction to perform.

Agatha Ajembe, another customer at the Guaranty Trust Bank, said she knew about the protest through the social media but did not think customers would observe it.

She said her daughter, who lived in school, needed money urgently and the only thing that would have stopped her from coming to the bank was if the banks were closed.

Another customer at the Diamond Bank said: “There is no way such groups can give directives like this and expect customers to comply.

“I just got to know about this from a friend shortly before I set out for the bank through the social media and there is no authenticity as to this directive.

“If such groups want to embark on programmes like this, they should go about it the proper way and do more awareness to inform customers about their intensions.”

Officials of the various banks said they had normal inflow of customers.

An official at the Diamond Bank said although the bank got the news of the protest and the intention of the group, there was very little it could do.

“Commercial banks are like instruments which the CBN uses to implement its monetary policies,” the official said.

“All of those charges they are complaining about are charges directed by the CBN and there is no commercial bank that will want to go against the directive by the apex bank.

“In as much as we are aware of the complaints by customers, there is very little the commercial banks can do about it.”

Some officials at the Eco bank and FCMB said their banks remained opened and transactions at the banks went on smoothly without any hitch.