By Dayo Omoogun
Even as you read this, chances are that there are long queues at the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) around you.
If you live or do business in places like Ikeja, Oshodi, Agege, Idumota, Ogba, Broad Street in Lagos ; Nyanya, Mararaba, Kubwa, Zuba,Gwagwalada,Gwarimpa, Bwari etc in the FCT, it is likely that this is a familiar scenario to you and it is well replicated across the country. These queues are not only unnecessary but very annoying and frustrating. I can recall vividly how on a Sunday morning sometime ago, there were about 63 persons waiting in line for cash at a bank ATM somewhere on the outskirts of the FCT. I actually took a count! Worse still it remained within that range for the almost two hours I spent before my turn came. Ordinarily it could be explained away as a fallout of population explosion in those areas but a closer look shows that there are more important factors which are attributable to the banks themselves.
Poor maintenance culture of the machines by the banks is a strong factor responsible for the queues. A situation where a bank has six (6) Automated Teller Machines (ATM) in its gallery but only two (2) are in good working condition is totally unacceptable to say the least. It is simply scandalous and a mockery of the banking system if averagely 50% to 70% of installed teller machines are regularly out of use. The point therefore is that If all existing ATMs are put to use with minimum down time, the queues are likely to disappear or they will be reduced considerably.
The low ceiling on the amount of withdrawal per transaction is another obstacle hampering the free flow of the queues. Most banks have limited the amount to #10,000 which means that anyone who wishes to withdraw the sum of #100,000 which is the maximum daily limit via the ATMs, has to do ten transactions while others are standing in the sun and the queue is growing. It is believed that this limitation was deliberately put in place in order to increase the banks earnings through the charges that accrue per transaction. This is a very unfortunate policy. If the daily limit is #100, 000, why should anyone whoso desires, not be able to withdraw the sum in one single transaction or at the worst in two transactions? If the bank does not put unnecessary bumps in the way of deposits why should withdrawal be so cumbersome, time wasting and indeed punitive?
Many times the customer is welcomed with the cold machine screen response that it is “temporarily unable to dispense cash” which experience has shown is a nice way of saying that the machines have not been fed with cash. It is normal that the machines will run out of cash from time to time but the issue is with the waiting time between each loading. What negligence and irresponsibility! It shows the level of contempt that banks have for their customers. On the Sunday morning cited above this was the case with the machines of five other banks within the same area. Those five banks have at least 20 machines which were all not dispensing.
A visit to some banks reveals that in many cases their point-of –sales (POS) machines are out of service most of the time. This is believed to be another ploy to ensure that customers do not have the alternative of faster and cheaper means of transfer or withdrawal since larger amounts can be moved in a single transaction via the POS. In such instances the customer is left with the choice of joining either the banking hall queue or that of the ATM or abandoning the transaction entirely.
Most customers believe that the apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cannot be oblivious of these artificial problems but aver that it is actually in cahoots with the deposit money banks. To avoid this unhealthy image, the CBN must take another look at the ATM system and do whatever is possible to improve the banking experience of the average bank customer. The loss of man-hours due to the delay, the resultant slow-down of trading activities, the physical stress on the people especially the health- challenged or pregnant or elderly, the long line of people , these are all negatives that neither our economy nor national image can afford.