Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria read the riot act to the nation’s financial institutions in respect of the time frame they have to resolve issues arising from the use of any of their Automated Teller Machines (ATM).

This directive, the apex bank argued, is coming on the heels of complaints from bank customers regarding the response time of most  banks to issues relating to Automated Teller Machines.

Though the introduction of the ATM technology by the apex bank some years ago was designed to decongest the banking halls, ease banking transactions and give customers value for their money, it is obvious that some of the nation’s banks have not actually demonstrated a full grasp of the technology  since the introduction of this unique technology.

While the apex bank had continued to strive to bring banking practice in this part of the world in tune with global trends, the ATM technology has continued to record issues and controversies on a daily basis, as seen in the amount of complaints lodged in the banking halls by  customers of these banks.

Interestingly, the call for an ATM desk in the nation’s banking halls was  seen by stakeholders as one of the efforts by the apex bank to fasttrack the resolution of  the ATM related issues. Not a few believe this directive has become imperative when viewed against the background that in spite of the much-professed claims by the nation’s financial institutions in respect of their readiness for the ATM technology, events have however shown that a lot still needs to be done to enable bank customers enjoy this technology, designed to decongest the banking halls and ease the rigours usually associated with banking in this part of the world.

For instance, it is on record that it sometimes takes customers between two and three weeks to actually get their ATM issues resolved in some of these banks in spite of the  apex bank’s crave for quick response in this regard, while some have even ended up not getting theirs resolved at all.

Even nowadays, long queues of ATM users have become a common spectacle outside the banking halls of most banks due to the increasing number of people that are now embracing the technology and the banks’ inability to up their games, in this regard.

“It’s an interesting technology, but sometimes these banks use it to short-change their customers. I had once lost the sum of N15,000 to Bank PHB’s ATM. I had gone to withdraw the sum, but the machine would not just dispense the cash only to receive an alert later, debiting my account for the funds,” stated a bank customer, who would not want his name in print.

“When I went to complain at the bank, I was told to fill a form, only to be told later by the bank that its findings showed that the transaction was actually successful, whereas I didn’t get the money,” he added.

Raheem, another customer of GT Bank, told Banking Watch that it took the bank close to two weeks to resolve a transaction in one of their machines that went awry, in spite of the fact that the ATM card used and the machine that refused to dispense the cash belonged to the bank.

“Curiously, this issue should have been resolved within hours as stipulated by the CBN, without even much efforts from me,” he complained.

Perhaps, some of these banks would have had ample opportunity to deal with these  ATM-related issues, if the apex bank’s directive that  an ATM help desk should be created by all the banks to enable them promptly respond to issues arising from the use of the ATM.

But unfortunately, Banking Watch’s investigation revealed that a huge number of these banks are not in a hurry to comply with the directive. Checks in some of these banks showed that  there are no clear-cut ATM help desks within the banks, and those that attend to issues relating to ATM do this in addition to their responsibilities.

A banker, with one of the first generation banks in the country, explained that most banks have not been able to meet this directive because of the crisis the banking sector has been experiencing in recent times.

“There are shortages of hands and most banks, for now, are not ready to employ more people. What they  do is to add that responsibility to the existing desks in the banks and not create a new one. This is because banks are currently bent on maximising profits and would therefore not embark on ventures that would take money from their pockets,” he stated.

He agreed with the claim that if the  desk had been set aside for that purpose, most of the issues arising from ATM usage wouldn’t have been taking such banks such a long time to resolve.

Corroborating the above view, Biyi Adesuyi, who spent close to two decades with some of the nation’s financial institutions, believed most of the issues arising from ATM usage are avoidable if the banks had created a desk  saddled with that responsibility.

“Though there are logistics problems sometimes, the fact remains that a help desk created for ATM issues would have gone a long way in ameliorating the hardship some customers experience while using the facility,” he noted.

He, however, disagreed with the notion that some banks  actually refused to create the desk as a cost- saving measure, adding that if the technology is well-managed, it is a huge source of income for the banks.

While it may not be farther from the truth to believe that an ATM help desk would definitely have  assuaged the fury of the likes of Raheem, one then wonders why  the nation’s financial institutions are still not in a hurry to create such help desks, as directed by the apex bank. Perhaps it would take some insistence on the part of the apex bank  before this much-sought after desk is created.