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Customers of First Bank and GTB yesterday had hard times
transacting business at the banks as their networks broke down. Normal services
were not resumed until after midday, leading to frayed tempers in the banking
halls across Lagos.

The banks have been showing signs of network challenges, either
technology migration induced or just service breakdown. Visits to branches of
the banks showed that the challenges faced by the banks before the long Easter
breakstill persisted, as both had their banking halls filled with aggrieved
customers.

Tough business day

The network challenges made it difficult for customers to
transact business. Mostly affected were those who wanted to withdraw money from
their accounts through the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), as the banks
continued to accept deposits but could not post them immediately.

Funmi Adekoya, a customer said, “Last Thursday, I was here and
they officially announced to us that they were having network challenges; that
we should bear with them, because their services would be below expectation. I
initially thought it was because of the rush for withdrawals by customers
because of the long break ahead, but a week later, I am surprised that am
starring at even a worse situation.”

Some of the customers were so frustrated they refused to switch
off their phones while some picked their calls, despite caution from the bank
attendants.

“How do you expect me to switch off my phone? Do you know how
long I have been here? So I should not pick my calls? If you don’t want me to
pick my calls, then give me my money and let me go. It is only when you are
rendering your services efficiently that you can expect me to obey your rules,”
a customer told an official in anger.

First Bank, in some of its branches, could not carry out any
transactions for its customers till noon yesterday.

“The network was just restored a few minutes ago,” a bank
attendant at First Bank, Oba Akran branch, said, around 12.20 pm. “It has been
down since morning. We have not been able to make any payments or perform other
transactions,” she said, looking at the crowded hall.

According to her, there was no need heading for another branch.
“The truth is that it is everywhere; it’s affecting all our branches” she
added.

The bank’s hall was filled to capacity, despite the fact that
some customers were turning back, as soon as they sighted the queue. At the
GTBank, it was no different. At 12.30pm however, the banks had begun responding
to customers.

On Wednesday, GTB on Facebook apologised to its customers for
the downtime experienced with its challenges during the Easter holidays.

The bank had said, “We want to sincerely apologise for the
downtime experienced with our Internet Banking Service during the Easter holidays.
We recently migrated to our Superdome Servers, which will provide our e-Banking
Channels with a more robust, secure, stable & reliable platform.

“Over the next few days, you may notice some service disruptions
across certain branches and e-Banking Channels. This is also a result of
Internal Migrations and Platform Reboots. Please be rest assured that our other
e-Channels (ATM, Mobile & GTConnect) will continue to function throughout
this upgrade/ migration. Thank you for your understanding and know that we do
this because we want to serve you better,” the statement said.

The spokesperson for the First Bank, when contacted on phone,
said he was out of Lagos and could not speak on the problem.

Service breakdowns are not totally avoidable. It is not known
when the banks service breakdown would be fully addressed, but customers say
banks should devise a more effective way to address their internal challenges,
without having to put their customers through such extreme discomfort.