We copy technology in Nigeria but fail to copy correctly. My boss is a Civil Engineering consultant and is currently overseeing a federal government project in Nigeria. He uses a Unionpay ATM card issued to him by his bank in China (where he is based) for cash withdrawal and POS payments whenever he is overseas.

Unfortunately yesterday, the card got stuck in a GTBank ATM while trying to withdraw money. All efforts to retrieve the card from the GTBank branch failed as the manager kept insisting on the CBN policy mandating banks to withhold and destroy such ATM cards. Imagine. In saner climes, all that is needed is proof of ownership and attestation of card retrieval by the owner. In fact, same ATM card got stuck in a machine while he was at Ethiopia last year.

The bank in Ethiopia has a clear procedure for card retrieval. First he was asked to provide proof of ownership of the card in form of bank records which he did. He was later followed by a security man to the bank's ATM to demonstrate access through his PIN which he did smoothly. Then they handed him a form to fill, attesting he collected the card with photocopy of his international passport attached. He did all that within few minutes and got back his card. We were at the GTBank branch for over 3hours yesterday trying to find a way to retrieve the card to no avail. Even after calling GTconnect, chatting with customer care and prevailing on the branch manager to understand his circumstances they kept reciting the simplistic CBN policy of destroying such cards.

I was ashamed as a Nigerian yesterday. We copy western technology but fail to put necessary infrastructure and right policies in place to make such technology robust. Let’s ponder on these questions as Nigerians:

1. Of what use is a policy if it fails to protect the interest of consumers, local and international?

2. Why should a user of an ATM suffer loss as a result of a malfunctioning machine (other cards were seized by same machine yesterday)?

3. Shouldn’t users of international ATM cards be protected from such policies considering the high charges on cash withdrawal (GTBank ATMs charges N100 per N1000 withdrawn with the card)?

4. Is this how we intend to attract foreign investors and professionals?

This obnoxious policy of destroying ATM cards must stop. It is not only crude, but also against international best practices.

Even God is tired of Nigeria

Niyi74:
We copy technology in Nigeria but fail to copy correctly. My boss is a Civil Engineering consultant and is currently overseeing a federal government project in Nigeria. He uses a Unionpay ATM card issued to him by his bank in China (where he is based) for cash withdrawal and POS payments whenever he is overseas.

Unfortunately yesterday, the card got stuck in a GTBank ATM while trying to withdraw money. All efforts to retrieve the card from the GTBank branch failed as the manager kept insisting on the CBN policy mandating banks to withhold and destroy such ATM cards. Imagine. In saner climes, all that is needed is proof of ownership and attestation of card retrieval by the owner. In fact, same ATM card got stuck in a machine while he was at Ethiopia last year.

The bank in Ethiopia has a clear procedure for card retrieval. First he was asked to provide proof of ownership of the card in form of bank records which he did. He was later followed by a security man to the bank's ATM to demonstrate access through his PIN which he did smoothly. Then they handed him a form to fill, attesting he collected the card with photocopy of his international passport attached. He did all that within few minutes and got back his card. We were at the GTBank branch for over 3hours yesterday trying to find a way to retrieve the card to no avail. Even after calling GTconnect, chatting with customer care and prevailing on the branch manager to understand his circumstances they kept reciting the simplistic CBN policy of destroying such cards.

I was ashamed as a Nigerian yesterday. We copy western technology but fail to put necessary infrastructure and right policies in place to make such technology robust. Let’s ponder on these questions as Nigerians:

1. Of what use is a policy if it fails to protect the interest of consumers, local and international?

2. Why should a user of an ATM suffer loss as a result of a malfunctioning machine (other cards were seized by same machine yesterday)?

3. Shouldn’t users of international ATM cards be protected from such policies considering the high charges on cash withdrawal (GTBank ATMs charges N100 per N1000 withdrawn with the card)?

4. Is this how we intend to attract foreign investors and professionals?

This obnoxious policy of destroying ATM cards must stop. It is not only crude, but also against international best practices.

It's Really Painful and Unfortunate bro!
I feel the pains of your Boss!

Nigerians are the Destroyers of Nigeria...

Its a pity his card was trapped.

Shame!

My brother! Every country has it policy when it comes to ATM banking & withdrawal.

My GT-Bank card was stuck in HSBC ATM in Cyprus and when I went into the bank, they said because I didn't sign at the back of the card that they can't issue me the ATM card even with my international passport data matching the name in my ATM.

I understand how frustrated your situation was, currently dealing with GTBank at the moment. Customer service is utterly .... The staffs are doing their best but there is room for improvement. I am helping CBN on customer service improvement and will raise this issue asap.

Too much ATM fraud in Nigeria.Also quite high due to illiteracy and once chance operators.

Are you aware that our istant transfer is one of the fastest in the world which gives no ample time to report a fraud once a debit alert has been received.CBN has been trying to increase the transfer window time.

So our CBN policies will always have its pros and cons

All your boss need do is to request for another ATM and get a proxy to collect on his behalf and Courier same to him.

bedspread:


It's Really Painful and Unfortunate bro!
I feel the pains of your Boss!

Nigerians are the Destroyers of Nigeria...

Seriously bro. Policies should exist to serve users.

asamwababy:
Too much ATM fraud in Nigeria.Also quite high due to illiteracy and once chance operators.

Are you aware that our istant transfer is one of the fastest in the world which gives no ample time to report a fraud once a debit alert has been received.CBN has been trying to increase the transfer window time.

So our CBN policies will always have its pros and cons

All your boss need do is to request for another ATM and get a proxy to collect on his behalf and Courier same to him.

Yeah he sure can do that but it's a long process as he needs access to quick cash on daily basis. That policy is so crude. What if he were just a tourist with no local contacts here in Nigeria? He couldn't understand why such a policy exists considering his experiences in Europe and some African countries. He believed Nigeria should be smarter. He was disappointed yesterday.

adewaleID:
I understand how frustrated your situation was, currently dealing with GTBank at the moment. Customer service is utterly .... The staffs are doing their best but there is room for improvement. I am helping CBN on customer service improvement and will raise this issue asap.

Please do. Nigeria should not be implementing such simplistic policy. We are a top investment destination in Africa with investors and expatriate professionals in major cities. We should be prepared for little issues like this. As small as this may seem, it still leaves a bad impression in the mind of a would be investor.

fados4sure:
My brother! Every country has it policy when it comes to ATM banking & withdrawal.

My GT-Bank card was stuck in HSBC ATM in Cyprus and when I went into the bank, they said because I didn't sign at the back of the card that they can't issue me the ATM card even with my international passport data matching the name in my ATM.

Imagine. At least they still gave a slightly valid reason even though they ought to have requested for other means of proof of ownership. Nigeria's policy is worse. Gtbank stated flatly that they don't have a policy for retrieval of such cards. It has to be destroyed. Imagine!

Niyi74:

Yeah he sure can do that but it's a long process as he needs access to quick cash on daily basis. That policy is so crude. What if he were just a tourist with no local contacts here in Nigeria? He couldn't understand why such a policy exists considering his experiences in Europe and some African countries. He believed Nigeria should be smarter. He was disappointed yesterday.

will tou be saying this same bullshit if his card was claimed by fraudsters and all the money in his account stolen?
No make me vex o!i hate stupidity,pun intended.
Who cares if you are proud of Nigeria or not and what has that got to do with anything?
You can go and naturalize in Ethiopia for all i care.
Every land has it's laws,abide or Bleep off!!!

nwanneni:
will tou be saying this same bullshit if his card was claimed by fraudsters and all the money in his account stolen?
No make me vex o!i hate stupidity,pun intended.
Who cares if you are proud of Nigeria or not and what has that got to do with anything?
You can go and naturalize in Ethiopia for all i care.
Every land has it's laws,abide or Bleep off!!!

did Nigeria have law self pls let the OP be...

nwanneni:
will tou be saying this same bullshit if his card was claimed by fraudsters and all the money in his account stolen?
No make me vex o!i hate stupidity,pun intended.
Who cares if you are proud of Nigeria or not and what has that got to do with anything?
You can go and naturalize in Ethiopia for all i care.
Every land has it's laws,abide or Bleep off!!!

Laws should serve people and not the other way round. How does withholding or 'destroying' the card prevent fraudulent transaction? Do they send the evidence of card destruction to the owner of the card?

Niyi74:

Laws should serve people and not the other way round. How does withholding or 'destroying' the card prevent fraudulent transaction? Do they send the evidence of card destruction to the owner of the card?

not interested in any kind of brawl tonight.
You can always write a letter to CBN to tell them how much of a genius you really are.goodluck!

Sadly, the CBN rule is to destroy all third party cards swallowed at Nigerian ATM machines.

Maybe agitators can ask CBN to exclude Intl cards from this rule. For now, it's the law.

Maybe he should explore opening a Nigerian Bank Account since he will be here for a while on a Government Project.