Bank customers lament long queues at ATM centres

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December 21, 2017 4:14 PM

Some residents, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said they faced a lot of discomfort just to withdraw money.

Customers using the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) in banks in Benin have decried poor services rendered by the machines, causing long queues at various branches of commercial banks.

While attributing the poor services of the ATMs to network challenges, the respondents also decried the attitudes of the managements or the operators of the machines to customers.

The queues, which characterised the centres across Benin, started since Tuesday.

However, a bank worker who pleaded anonymity, attributed the poor services to network challenges and appealed for patience from the customers, adding that they were working hard to resolve the issue.

This promise was, however, disputed by one of the respondents who claimed that the situation had become a yearly occurrence experienced by customers which had not been resolved.

According to Mr Andrew Usifo, “we are not just hearing this for the first time, in fact, this poor services of the ATMs have become a yearly ritual at this time of the year.

“Last December it was like this and they did promise to work on it, just like they are saying now, but what have we this year again.

“They need to improve and work on their network, especially against the backdrop of expected high traffic occasioned by the Christmas celebration,” he said.

Another resident, James Acha, decried the fact that Nigerians were virtually going through lot of suffering to get what they wanted.

“I just cannot understand this; that we worked extra hard to make money and another tortuous process to even keep it in these banks, and another challenge to withdraw the money,” he said.

John Ebidah said that he had to wake as early as 5.30 a.m. to use the machine, as most of them were not working because of network issue.

Ebidah stressed that none of the several ATMs on the airport road was dispensing cash as at 8 a.m. on Thursday.

“As I speak with you, even the banking hall is no different. It is filled with people trying to make one transaction or another,” he stated.

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