Connect with us

Business

Bank customers petition CBN over alleged Illegal deductions, demand urgent redress

Published

on

CBN warns of imminent inflation as businesses struggle with soaring input costs

The Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN) has petitioned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over what it describes as persistent, unauthorized deductions from customer accounts by financial institutions, calling for immediate regulatory intervention.

BCAN President, Dr. Uju Ogubunka, disclosed this during the 2025 Artificial Intelligence Conference held in Lagos. The event, organised by SuperNews and themed “Power of AI: Enhancing Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction for Better Financial Services Experience”, brought together top stakeholders from the banking and fintech sectors.

Ogubunka decried the growing spate of unexplained charges—particularly under the end-user billing model for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)—saying many of the deductions fall outside the fee structure approved by the CBN.

“We’ve written formally to the Central Bank to find a lasting solution to these excess charges. If this persists, customers may be left with no choice but to publicly demand accountability from the banking industry,” he said.

He painted a bleak picture of customer experience in the banking sector, insisting that service delivery remains poor despite growing adoption of digital tools and artificial intelligence by banks.

“Let’s be frank: customer satisfaction in Nigeria’s banking sector is nearly non-existent. The sheer volume of complaints, legal suits, and petitions at the Bankers’ House, CBN, NDIC, and other mediation bodies speaks volumes,” Ogubunka lamented.

He questioned the real impact of AI in the industry, arguing that if artificial intelligence had been genuinely integrated, problems like transaction failures, poor resolution timelines, and unclear deductions would have been resolved by now.

Delivering the keynote address, respected financial expert and CEO of Cowry Assets, Johnson Chukwu, highlighted AI’s transformative potential in reshaping Nigeria’s financial ecosystem—especially in customer experience, fraud detection, and consumer lending.

According to Chukwu, AI-driven tools now enable real-time credit scoring, allowing banks and fintechs to disburse micro-loans almost instantly with little to no human input.

Advertisement

“AI assesses income, spending patterns, and even your physical movements through data from telcos. So when you apply for a loan, approval and disbursement can happen within minutes,” he explained.

He also underscored AI’s ability to deliver hyper-personalised financial services.

“With AI, a million customers can be treated as a million individuals. It learns your financial habits, recognises your face or fingerprint, and provides services tailored to your lifestyle and goals,” Chukwu said.

Beyond personalisation, he noted that AI could dramatically reduce complaint resolution time by mining customer data to identify problems at the source.

Chukwu concluded with a strategic blueprint for AI adoption in Nigeria’s financial sector, anchored on what he called the “Seven C’s”: Capacity, Capability, Collaboration, Creativity, Cognition, Continuity, and Control.

“Artificial Intelligence is redefining customer service. Any financial institution that fails to adapt will be left behind. The future is already here, and the time to act is now,” he declared.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tags

Facebook

Advertisement

Advertisement