A customer of one of Nigeria’s commercial banks, Zenith bank, has narrated the poor customer service rendered to him by the financial institution in Abuja, lamenting that besides the embarrassment he received from the bank and its staff, he and his wife almost missed out of a major trip due to the bank’s ‘deceit and lies’.
Alhaji Ibrahim Bashir, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Chelars Global Service Limited narrated his ordeal to Afripost.ng after he stormed out of Zenith bank head office in Maitama in Abuja.
Bashir who was meant to travel alongside his wife alleged that the treatment meted out to him by Zenith bank since the past one month had threatened his plan to travel out of the country.
He said that after applying for Personal Travel Allowance, PTA, which was supposed to be paid in dollars, he was told by the zone 4 branch of the bank that the Central Bank had stopped giving them dollars.
According to him: “After embarrassing me from teh zone 4 branch, I proceeded to their head office in Maitama where I was told the same thing. This is something that I applied for a month ago. I had to call my contact at the CBN and I was told that Zenith bank had been receiving funds for PTA. I was shocked. And when I engaged them further in a discussion on how to amicably resolve and get my dollars out, I was again embarrassed by the staff. It was a very sad scene. You can imagine the rejection and the frustration. How Zenith bank handles their customer so poorly is beyond me. I was literally asked to leave the bank.
“The question right now is what does the bank do with its dollars. I tried to investigate and I was told they prefer to trade in the black market. But you and I know that such is a huge injustice on the part of their customers who truly need dollars, especially those of us traveling out.
“But when I approached another commercial bank, in less than 24 hours, they were able to grant my request. So where is Zenith bank operating from and which CBN are they dealing with? I need them to answer these questions or I proceed to sue the bank for abusing my right as a Nigerian.
“Zenith bank needs to come clean on this. It needs to explain to customers what it does with the dollars it gets from the Central Bank. And the bank must apologize to me for the embarrassment I suffered as a result of this development.”
But when Afpripost.ng approached the bank officials for comment, they all declined, saying they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Other efforts made to reach the bank’s media unit failed as at press time.