Commercial banks in the country refunded about N654 million which was illegally deducted from accounts linked to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
This was disclosed in the March report of Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
In the report, the NBS stated that the refunded amount was an excess charge which was removed from the statutory allocation of N647.39 billion disbursed in March to governments at the Federal, States and Local Government levels.
Reacting to the development, Mr. Uju Ogbunka, President of the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria described the situation as a continuation of the prevalent problem of banks’ excessive charges to their customers.
In his opinion, this latest development is enough to really prompt all the regulatory authorities to impose the right sanctions on the erring banks.
This confirms the fears and agonies that bank customers have been passing through, and we have been complaining but nobody seems to be interested in listening to us, let alone do something. Now that it has hit the government account perhaps they will now know that all the complaints are real, and take action to stop this unwholesome practice.
The problem of excessive bank charges has become commonplace in the Nigerian banking sector.
Ever so often, disappointed bank customers lodge complaints about money illegally deducted from their accounts. Unfortunately, their complaints are seldom attended to.
The apex bank earlier this year issued a directive requiring all financial institutions in the country to rectify their customers’ complaints within a two-week period.
Unfortunately, as we can see, this directive has done nothing to change the trend of excessive bank charges and deductions.