Bank customers in Anambra State have lamented the poor services rendered to them by some banks in the state.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, many customers who besieged various banks in the state for one transaction or the other ended up going back disappointed without being attended to.
Our correspondent who visited major cities in the state such as Onitsha, Nnewi and some parts of Awka on Wednesday gathered that the situation was made worst by last week’s sit-at-home order, which paralysed commercial activities in the South-East.
At one of the new generation banks in Onitsha, the situation almost resulted in a free-for-all as customers threw caution to the winds in a bid to forcibly gain entry into the banking hall.
A top staff member of the bank, identified as Mr Nicholas Ugwu, while appealing to the aggrieved customers, blamed the situation on COVID-19 restrictions, poor network services and the effect of the sit-at-home order.
Ugwu said, “The surge in the number of customers in the bank this week is largely because many people, who could not come to the bank last week due to the sit-at-home, are doing so this week. So, this is the situation we are dealing with, coupled with the COVID-19 restrictions and poor network.”
A customer, Mr Charles Ndu, blamed the situation on the banks, saying that the banks deliberately refused to hire enough personnel to cater to the demands of customers.
At Nnewi, customers of another bank were seen almost angrily pouncing on one of the officials at the premises.
A customer, identified as Mrs Cecilia Ugoh, told our correspondent that someone collapsed at the bank while waiting to be attended to on Tuesday.
She said, “These constant poor services in banks in this area have become unbearable. And we are in a helpless situation right now as they don’t even show empathy to our plight. Yesterday, someone collapsed here; if not for quick intervention by the people around, it would have been a casualty.”
“I have been to almost seven banks this morning and none of their ATMs is dispensing. How can this be happening? The ATMs are not dispensing but the PoS operators around the banks are dispensing; I am suspecting that the officials in these banks, whose ATMs are not working, are the ones running the PoS.”
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