Our dear Nigeria bank can turn you into a beggar, at least that was what almost happened to me during my wedding in 2021.
When I left my house to the main market in my hometown, a twenty minute ride from my house, I never forsee what was installed for me.
My Wema bank account was opened somewhere In 2020 due to the constant frustration I was facing from my first bank account. According to first bank customer care, there was a limit of cash that could enter into my account because it was a student account. But all effort on my part to upgrade it proved abortive as each time I provided my bio data, the account never got upgraded. This led me to switch to another bank after trying four times without success.
I opened a Wema bank account while I was still in Lagos and it was working perfectly well until December 2021, by then I had already traveled down from Lagos to Okene, my hometown for some part of my wedding preparation, that was when they decided to show me their true colors.
Some money I had saved into the account which I needed for the preparation of my wedding became something I could not access.
On that fateful day, I left my house to the market to make some purchases and the only money in my hand was just my transport fare. I thought once I got to the market I could easily make use of POS or do mobile transfer.
On getting to the market, after trying many times to do transfers without success and using a POS service was also not successful I realized that my account had been restricted without any form of notice from wema bank.
I was basically stranded on that day, I couldn't pay for the things I bought, none had any cash with me for transport back home.
I had to start calling Mom who sent money to a POS operative before I could get transport back home. I had to leave those things I needed to buy for some other time.
The worst thing was, there is no Wema bank in Okene so I had to wait till I travel to Abuja after our wedding before I could access my money as I was to join hubby in Abuja after our wedding ceremony.
I had to borrow money from friends before I could buy the things I needed during the wedding. I'm glad some friends came through for me but it was very annoying when I have savings in my account and could not access it because of their policy I knew nothing about. Like they could have just informed me through email that I needed to come for a Know Your Customer exercise but no, they decided to flex their muscles and it has to be during my wedding of all time.
Coming to Abuja, in January 2022, I was desperate in need of my savings and getting Wema bank to unlock my account became a tug of war. Because of the many activities of the festive period there were just too many people queuing at the bank from one banking issue to another and their network was very terrible.
I will leave my house to visit their branch as early as 7 am and there will still be so much queue. My first visit, I wasn't even able to get inside the bank until my second visit. I was finally able to get inside the banking hall to unlock my account and gain access to my money. Only then was I able to refund my friends that borrowed me some money during the wedding.
Ever since then I never step foot into the banking hall, thanks to the availability of POS everywhere and the use of Internet banking. My current ATM won't expire until 2024 and till then, I don't wish to have any reason to visit my bank.
I understand that the banking sector is still developing and is very challenging dealing with their large number of customers but I feel that they need to do better, they can do better in handling how people used to suffer when they visit some banks most especially during festive period.
This is my entry into hive naija prompt for this week. Thank you very much for visiting and for your support