i called a friend in Lagos and asked him to pay some money to another friend,he called me when he got to his bank and i expected that the whole transaction would not take more than few mins ,as i believed all he has to do was to give his bank the account number,name and also the name of the bank of the recipient an the money would be transfered electronically through the inter-bank process,but to my surprise when i called him up about an hour,he told me that was going to the bank of the guy he would pay to his account ,i asked him why would he do that ,why wont he just give the banking details to his bank and they would transfer the money to the recipient ,well he said it doesn't work that way with the nigerian banking system,that he would first withdraw the money in cash and then take it to the recipient bank and then deposit it there .
now i found this somehow strange,cos withdrawing cash from ur bank and then taking it physically to the bank where the recipient have account is like taking too much risk and trouble ,but i don't really know if this guy is telling me the truth or not,so i would like you guys to confirm to me if electronic inter-bank transfer is not yet allowed in Nigeria or not .

@egoldman

Much as we would like to think the banking scene in Nigeria is one of the most modern in the world this is simply not true.
Facilities missing or substandard in Nigerian banks include
1. Interbank transfers
2. International money transfers (only a few banks and most demand a domiciliary account first, even the major players have problems here)
3. Live online services (carrying out an online transaction may not be recorded electronically till at least 24h after actual transcation)
4. Always on internet services (have been trying to view my account online for the last 3 days to no avail)
5. Online share dealing services (realtime not send an email and we will respond next week sometime)

I recently opened a bank account in Nigeria, after completing all the forms and making the  initial  deposit, the person i was dealing with could not even walk me to the door of her office (manners!!) and immediately started talking to someone else  leaving me to wonder if indeed we had concluded our business. I certainly did not want to know what she was going to have for lunch with her colleague!

The next bank i walked into, at some point there was a conversation along the following lines, aaah you want to open an account? we only accept account opening deposits of N500,000 and above here Oh! this is not a poor mans bank!. Does one have to wear a suit made out of naira bills  when opening a bank account how crude. Isn't it better to have an account for every single person in Nigeria rather than a few rich crooks whose accounts might be frozen anytime, simply flawed thinking i say.
Even after opening the account with more than te required deposit, i still struggle to carry out simple transactions everything is done in slow time in Nigeria

So Brother beware and don't rely on these so called Banks, don't expect much, it helps to lower your expectations

that is eye opening @nigafresh,on at least three ocassions i have been told nthat money have been paid to my brothers bank account in niger and on each ocassion my brother would go to the bank and the money would not be there ,sometimes they say their network is down but i later got to know the reason this always happens.
a bank employee told me that what happens is this ; when a customer comes to the bank to deposit money into his or someones account ,the money would be received ,but in some cases especially when there are other customers waiting ,the cashier would not credit the account right away electronically,they keep records of this deposits offline and then around 4pm when there are less customers or sometimes over night they would start posting the money electronically .
though the cbn have been trying but i think they need to do more ,slow transactions don't really help the economy,i also do not think this is something that would take too long to solve ,the banks just have to create a department that deals only in posting payment to recipients account as soon as money have been deposited with the bank ,i have heard and seen people almost go to brows cos one said he paid the money and one said he didn't see it and this is as a result of the slow transaction we have in with Nigeria banks .

@egoldman
It seems the flashy computers in Nigerian banks are for checking emails and surfing the net.
I wonder how secure their systems are,they are seem to be logged onto the internet all the time. Strangely though they never reply emails or if they do its usually days after the initial email.

By the way i have been waiting for a new PIN to be sent to me by UBA so i can access my account for nearly a week now, i am tired of waiting

How can you operate an account from abroad when you cant track transactions online? I will have a very low threshold for changing banks.
I have tried to give allowance for the 'Nigerian factor' here but what exactly does the word 'tomorrow' mean to Nigerians

All i can say is dint accept any excuses

naijafresh
only a week?

Gtb gave me mine after about 3 months
Zenith bank- the staffs actually said they dont know anything about online transactions initially, over 6months now i dont even ask them anymore.