"No Cash to Dispense": Nigerian Bank Customers Bemoan Difficulty in Withdrawing Money
- The customers of Heritage Bank are calling on the CBN to look into withdrawal issues experienced by them in recent times
- For the past three weeks, these problems have made transactions difficult for the clients, both in-person and online
- Some bank account holders said that there were no problems when the accounts were credited, but they had difficulties when trying to withdraw money
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Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has over three years of experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.
Customers of Heritage Bank Plc have urged the government, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and other relevant authorities to take quick action about the bank's unidentified concerns.
Source: Getty Images
These issues have made online and in-person transactions challenging for customers over the past three weeks.
The customers bemoaned their difficulties in withdrawing money from their bank accounts and claimed the circumstances had adversely affected them.
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Many people, who spoke with Premium Times, claimed that the issue had existed for weeks, while others argued that they had only recently started having trouble accessing their accounts.
While some acknowledged receiving communications from the bank, others pointed out that the problems predated the message and persisted even after the bank claimed to have resolved all the difficulties.
Some bank account holders claimed there were no issues when their accounts were credited, but they found it challenging to withdraw money from them.
Tellers at some of the bank's locations claimed to have given N5,000 cash to every customer who tried to withdraw on Monday, May 20. However, many consumers who were seen around the bank's property claimed to have received nothing from the institution.
Hassan Omotayo, a customer at the Zone 5 branch and the secretary of the Joint Council of Nigeria Civil Service Union, claimed that when he came to the bank at approximately 9:45am to make a withdrawal from his account, but was informed that the customer who arrived earlier had withdrawn available fund.
He said:
“At one point, they claimed to have distributed N5,000 to customers from the available funds, but no one could confirm that.
“As I am speaking to you now, I am about writing a letter of non-indebtedness because this is where my salary account is domiciled. I can change my salary account to where I will be well serviced.”
Reaction on social media:
Legit.ng gathered some of the comments about the bank on X social media.
@AdeolaRose_
"Heritage bank has been having network issues for more than a month. No cash to dispense to customers, no inter-bank transactions and one can't withdraw via ATM machine. This is one of the customers begging for her money to settle hospital bill of her sick child."
@TeezyFBaby1
"What's happening at Heritage Bank for Pete's sake? I've had close to 6 different people call me about their inability to make withdrawals from their accounts. I hate to be an alarmist, but the bank needs to let the public know why this is going on."
@church25568
"Please help us out ooo. Heritage Bank has refused to give us our money. We can't transfer and we can't withdraw also."
@JephIhemebiri
"Heritage Bank, has denied payment of pension to pensioners using the bank. All attempts to reach Heritage Bank has been futile as no real phone lines at their websites. Pls the bank shd explain why this's so."
@Elera001
"The is the most unsafe place to keep funds. Nigerians have been able to gain access to their funds saved with Heritage bank for over a month."
@TechyAbraham
"I had to google today if Heritage bank was a Microfinance bank How do you tell me that I can not withdraw more than 5k. Ha! Did someone borrow loan and did not pay? Did Yahoo Boys scam you people? What is wrong with my money Heritage Bank."
@DammyOA_
"Lmaooo Heritage Bank should just hand themselves over for takeover cos I don’t think they can survive. All the best to them."
Heritage Bank responds
When contacted, Ozena Utuku, the Heritage Bank spokesperson, replied that emails had previously been sent to the bank's clients alerting them of a system update scheduled for May 13.
The notice, as contained in the mail sent to this newspaper, reads in part,
“As part of our commitment to providing secured banking services and continually improving user experience across our platforms, we are currently conducting a system refresh exercise. During this period, you may experience challenges in accessing our banking applications”.
The official did note that a follow-up email confirming the exercise's successful conclusion had subsequently been delivered to the clients.
In its latest mail to customers, Heritage Bank wrote:
“Successful completion of the scheduled system maintenance on our platforms,” noting that all services are now fully restored.
Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserve rises
In another development, Legit.ng reported that Nigeria's foreign exchange (forex) reserves increased by $195.01 million to $32.64 billion at the weekend, indicating that the market is expected to have more liquidity.
The recent accretion marked the fourth consecutive increase in foreign exchange reserves after a month of declines.
The reserves increased by $89.76 million the week before. Prior to this, it had increased by $10.76 million and $132.68 million.
Proofreading by James Ojo Adakole, journalist and copy editor at Legit.ng.
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