Abuja, Lagos — Many customers of the tier 1 bank, Guarantee Trust, yesterday lamented their inability to seamlessly make online transactions due to a major disruption in the bank’s electronic channels on Monday and early Tuesday.
Daily Trust learnt that the disruption was a result of the software upgrade and network expansion the bank embarked on to accommodate its growing customer base.
The bank however said in a message yesterday that the issue had been resolved.
Recall that in its 2019 half year report, the bank under its retail strategy, delivered growth of 16.3% in its customer base from 14.4 million in Full Year 2018 to 16.4 million in Half Year 2019.
An insider who spoke with Daily Trust said: "We have been closing by 6pm for some days to enable us address the problem. The entire GTB nationwide is down. You cannot transfer from or to a GTB account."
A customer, Tasie Chimezie, who spoke with our reporter in Lagos said: " I made an ATM transaction of N30,000 to GTB account using a First Bank ATM. I got debited but the recipient didn’t get the money. This happened five days ago. He has complained using many channels but got lame excuses."
Another customer in Lagos, Adeola Lawal said: "GTB will send you debit alert for something you did three days ago and nearly give you heart attack because you’re wondering what you did at that moment only to remember what it was for."
Another customer in Abuja, Miss Rose, complained about the USSD channel. She said:" I have been trying to recharge via 737 all day, it didn’t work. I had important calls. I stepped outside to get a recharge card. Got it, then my account was credited. Now I have credit from failed 737 transactions and also a card I already paid for."
However, one of our reporters in Abuja visited three other banks at about 3pm on Tuesday and reported that customers were seen making online banking transactions without much hitches.
The UBA customer relations officer at the UBA Jahi, Abuja, said transactions happened all day without glitches.
A customer who preferred to be addressed as Mohammed said he had no problems doing online transfer."I came to the bank, filled the transfer form and did the transfer. It didn’t take me more than 15 minutes to finish the transaction because one or two people were ahead of me" he said.He however said, some days, the […]