Customers of Heritage Bank Plc – a major financial institution in Nigeria have appealed to the government and other relevant authorities such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to urgently intervene in the yet-to-be-determined challenges facing the bank, which has made transactions, both physically and online, difficult for them within the last three weeks or thereabouts.

The customers, in separate interviews with PREMIUM TIMES, expressed their frustrations in their efforts to withdraw from their accounts with the bank, saying the situation has subjected them to hardship.

However, the bank has said it notified its customers of “system refresh exercise” on 13 May but that the exercise has now been successfully completed.

But despite the declaration that the exercise has been concluded by the bank, many customers as of Monday were still stranded at the various branches of the bank that were visited by our reporters.

Lamentations

Many who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said the situation had persisted for weeks while others said they began to experience difficulties in accessing their accounts within the last month. Some acknowledged that they received messages from the bank but that the situation started long before the message and that it has continued even after it claimed all issues had been resolved.

Some of the account holders with the banks said crediting the account posed no problem but that it has been difficult to withdraw from the accounts.

At some of the branches visited, tellers said they gave N5,000 cash for each customer who attempted to withdraw on Monday but many customers who were found loitering within the bank’s premises said they did not receive a penny from the bank.

On Monday morning, customers at two branches of the bank in Wuse Zone 5, that is, the one near Novare Mall and the other located in front of the National Identity Management Commission office, complained that the challenges were yet to be resolved.

As of 2 p.m., customers at the Abuja head office in Garki Area 3 were still unable to access their funds.

A customer at the Zone 5 branch, Hassan Omotayo, who is the Secretary of the Joint Council of Nigeria Civil Service Union, said he got to the bank around 9:45 a.m. to withdraw from his account but that he was told that customers who arrived earlier had been paid.

Mr Omotayo expressed frustration, saying he drove about 200 kilometres from Sabon Wuse along Kaduna Road to the Wuse branch, “only to be unable to access my money.”

He said there was no official of the bank to address them on the lingering crisis.

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”.

A call on FCCPC

Another customer, identified as Shola, said his account with the bank is more than 10 years old but that the experience within the last three weeks could be very frustrating.

“For the past three weeks, I have been able to collect just N10,000. Today again I came all the way from Nyanya to Wuse and they are telling us the same thing,” Mr Shola said.

He said that all other methods of withdrawal or transfer, such as ATM and POS withdrawals, as well as using the bank mobile app, were unsuccessful.

As a salary earner responsible for his family, he narrated how the situation has adversely affected him and many others. He said despite having money in his account, he couldn’t provide food for his family over the weekend due to the inability to access his funds.

He said another customer he met at one of the bank’s branches was an hypertensive patient who couldn’t access money to purchase drugs.

Mr Shola urged the CBN and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to help resolve the “pathetic” situation.

Customers take to X

On X, a microblogging platform, Heritage Bank customers have been expressing their dissatisfaction with the poor service in recent days, often tagging the CBN for prompt action.

Meanwhile, the comment section of the bank’s official page has been disabled, possibly to prevent negative reviews from appearing on its page.

On his part, Abraham Akomolafe, posted some days ago: “I had to google today if Heritage Bank was a Microfinance bank. How do you tell me that I cannot withdraw more than 5k (N5,000)? Ha! Did someone borrow a loan and did not pay? Did Yahoo Boys scam you people? What is wrong with my money, Heritage Bank?”

Another user, Nolanichyme, shared their experience, stating: “Heritage Bank has seized the money of all its account holders. You cannot withdraw or do transfers, but money can enter your account. No one has been able to collect their money. I’ve not been able to do anything for over a month now. Why is CBN keeping quiet?”

David, another frustrated customer, urged for intervention, saying: “Please help us call Heritage Bank out oooo. We have been going there for two weeks now. No money, you can’t make transfers, and you can’t pay in. They said we can’t transfer unless they are authorised from their headquarters. If they want to die, let them give us our money oooo.”

Rexzee also reported similar issues, stating: “I filled a funds transfer form at Heritage Bank on the 3rd of May, but to this very day, Heritage Bank has not processed that fund transfer transaction yet. Their mobile banking app doesn’t work, ATM points don’t work, USSD dial codes don’t work, and most of their branches also don’t attend to customers. They will tell you that they don’t have network. Heritage Bank customers have been stranded for almost a month now without certainty of what is truly going on. Are our monies safe? Or are they trying to collapse with people’s funds? These are the questions we are begging @cenbank for answers.”

Ennymonny echoed these sentiments, saying: “This is what I’ve been facing for three weeks now. Heritage Bank is just terrible, terrible. Immediately I get my money, I’m closing my account with that bank. All their channels do not work.”

Bank reacts

PREMIUM TIMES reached out to the spokesperson of Heritage Bank, Ozena Utuku, who responded with mails reportedly sent to the bank’s customers earlier, informing them of a system refresh on 13 May.

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”.

However, the official said another mail has since been sent to the customers indicating the successful completion of the exercise. In its latest mail to customers, Heritage Bank simply wrote: “Successful completion of the scheduled system maintenance on our platforms,” noting that all services are now fully restored.

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However, customers have continued to lament their inability to withdraw from their accounts, saying nothing has been resolved by the bank.

Meanwhile, PREMIUM TIMES also reached out to the spokesperson of the CBN, Hakama Ali, on Monday, but there was no response as of the time of filing this report.

While calls to her known telephone number were not answered, text and WhatsApp messages were yet to be replied to.