Millions of Nigerians were left stranded and frustrated during the yuletide celebrations when Automated Teller Machines, ATMs owned by First Bank across the country dispensed less cash in some cases and failed to dispense cash in some other instances.
Many of the Nigeria’s oldest bank customers who had hoped to get enough cash from the ATMs to pay bills and shop for food items and other goods ahead of the Christmas and New Year break went home disappointed after waiting in long queues for several hours to withdraw their hard earned money.
The Lagos Times findings revealed that the issues were rampant at all the bank’s major branches in Nigeria.
In most places, angry customers desperate for cash turned the heat on bank workers by mounting repeated pressure on them to provide them with money.
The frustration made many customers describe First Bank (which is regarded as Nigeria’s largest bank by gross earnings and market capitalization), as the worst and most unreliable bank in the country.
More so, the issue led to crowded number of people swamping in and out of various First Bank branches, and scuffling for spaces to make use of the machines, which kept on declining their efforts to withdraw money.
While there were very long queues in the banks’ premises for most part of the days, there was also a large crowd of desperate customers that had also besieged main banking halls of the oldest bank across the country.
The unpalatable experiences equally made the frustrated customers move from bank to bank in a desperate attempt to lay their hands on cash via any ATM.
The situation inside the banking halls was not different either, as customers waited in endless queues without any hope of getting cash.
Some bank workers, however, claimed that the heavy traffic of customers was inevitable, since it was festive period and a lot of people needed money to prepare for the celebrations.
In a swift reaction, some of the customers expressed dissatisfaction at the bank’s services, noting that the bank ought to have prepared well for the busy season by stocking all their ATMs across the country with adequate and enough cash, as this would have curbed the problems of dispense error they were facing.
They lamented that while some of them had come to withdraw cash in order to purchase things for yuletide, others wanted to withdraw money so that they could travel to their hometowns for the celebrations.