Are they all sharing the same servers? Even ussd doesn't work most of the time. Even banks like GTBank we all had hopes on that they are reliable fumbled badly and service was very poor.

Ever since the cash scarcity and people had to go cashless. It has caused numerous problems like double transfer, SMS alert delay, Transfer taking too long etc.

From an engineering perspective, what happened?

Their software were broken

Deicide:
Are they all sharing the same servers? Even used doesn't work most of the time. Even banks like GTBank we all had hopes on that they are reliable fumbled badly and service was very poor.

Ever since the cash scarcity and people had to go cashless. It has caused numerous problems like double transfer, SMS alert delay, Transfer taking too long etc.

From an engineering perspective, what happened?

Their infrastructure failed. Think about it like suddenly having more cars on a road that wasn't expanded. Or 1000 people trying to park at a parking lot designed for 100 people. They could have upscaled their infrastructure as I expect they'd be using elastic computing, but from what I gather, it's not so easy to scale up in the Finance business due to the need for regulatory compliance. Those in the space may be able to give more detailed information

airsaylongcome:


Their infrastructure failed. Think about it like suddenly having more cars on a road that wasn't expanded. Or 1000 people trying to park at a parking lot designed for 100 people. They could have upscaled their infrastructure as I expect they'd be using elastic computing, but from what I gather, it's not so easy to scale up in the Finance business due to the need for regulatory compliance. Those in the space may be able to give more detailed information

Their problem is more with integration with legacy software and databases that have hotspots.

Unlike these new tech companies that have a brand new architecture designed from the ground up and with distributed services to minimize failures , we have the old banks having to intermarry their modern app platforms with the old core banking systems.

Now its not easy to migrate ordinary 20 years of banking data to a more scalable service whilst having uptime even in the night.

To now make matters worse, most of the senior techs that wrote the buggy and unscalable codes have japa or retired.

Haha I heard some banks still use COBOL is that true?

Deicide:
Haha I heard some banks still use COBOL is that true?

Yes. COBOL is used In a lot of legacy software. Is there a specific reason you ask?

Depending on what source you read, average COBOL programmer salary in the US is anywhere between $13,699 to $368,332.

Glassdoor says:
The estimated total pay for a COBOL Programmer is $83,669 per year in the United States area, with an average salary of $77,245 per year.

airsaylongcome:


Yes. COBOL is used In a lot of legacy software. Is there a specific reason you ask?

Depending on what source you read, average COBOL programmer salary in the US is anywhere between $13,699 to $368,332.

Glassdoor says:
The estimated total pay for a COBOL Programmer is $83,669 per year in the United States area, with an average salary of $77,245 per year.

Omo Na to go learn COBOL o. WOW!!!

Deicide:


Omo Na to go learn COBOL o. WOW!!!

Lol! I'm sure you asked initially because you wanted to "mock" the banks for using such old language. It will shock you to find our that Fortran programmers also earn a decent amount (for Nigerian economy)

As long as it does the job, no P.

airsaylongcome:


Lol! I'm sure you asked initially because you wanted to "mock" the banks for using such old language. It will shock you to find our that Fortran programmers also earn a decent amount (for Nigerian economy)

Yes we have to mock them for using such old language. The only reason why they paying that much is just inability to change and grow..

Anyways it's already too late, they would be looking for someone with 20+ years of experience 😅😂

Deicide:
Are they all sharing the same servers? Even ussd doesn't work most of the time. Even banks like GTBank we all had hopes on that they are reliable fumbled badly and service was very poor.

Ever since the cash scarcity and people had to go cashless. It has caused numerous problems like double transfer, SMS alert delay, Transfer taking too long etc.

From an engineering perspective, what happened?

It's very easy to blame the bank for all these, but the bank may not be the culprit.
There are different layer of institutions and processes involved in financial transactions and the bank is part of the cycle. It can be a complex web depending on the transaction.

There are switching companies like Interswitch, Chams, Unified Payments and ETranzact and NIBSS that are involved but many are not aware of these companies. The telcos play their role as well as payment networks.

These issues reminds me of the battle between programmers and Engineers many years ago when programmers would blame the systems and network while the Engineers would blame the applications for failure. We've passed that stage now.

Every system or app have a limit and in distress they all failed. Apple have over 200 billion USD in the bank but their website often crash during preorders. Same with Samsung. If you don't understand how these things work, it's easy to throw blames.

I would blame the CBN in all of this and I guess you know why. Their policy lacked technical analysis.

studyless123:


It's very easy to blame the bank for all these, but the bank may not be the culprit.
There are different layer of institutions and processes involved in financial transactions and the bank is part of the cycle. It can be a complex web depending on the transaction.

There are switching companies like Interswitch, Chams, Unified Payments and ETranzact and NIBSS that are involved but many are not aware of these companies. The telcos play their role as well as payment networks.

These issues reminds me of the battle between programmers and Engineers many years ago when programmers would blame the systems and network while the Engineers would blame the applications for failure. We've passed that stage now.

Every system or app have a limit and in distress they all failed. Apple have over 200 billion USD in the bank but their website often crash during preorders. Same with Samsung. If you don't understand how these things work, it's easy to throw blames.

I would blame the CBN in all of this and I guess you know why. Their policy lacked technical analysis.

Biko don't waste comparison , apple is global when Nigeria interbank is mainly for Nigerians and they failed

All of them uses same nip so no matter which bank u use , it will pass through nip and nip am very sure for years haven't be optimised or improve , maybe the Devs have already Japa

have been opportuned to work with a few banks, and you would be surprised at the sort of messy spagetti codes their stack is made of.

security is almost none existent. as in, some even store passwords in plaintext. if you have a peep at their code base, you need not sweat to bypass their security from the frontend.

they have absolutely no plan of upgrade or to deal with spikes.

have constantly made lots of suggestions, but all those keeps falling on deaf ears.

see eh, having a bank as client could be very very stressful. when they need you, they expect you work magic and resolve issues within nano-seconds even when such issue could have been mitigated by one of your previous numerous suggestions.

another is, some (if not most) companies might have IT department, but the analogue way of doing things are still engraved in their DNA.


then there's legacy softwares / access points not in their control which they have to rely on. more like being forced to remain on Windows XP just because your uplink provider still runs Windows Vista.


Let's not bring up their hostings. issue is, the brains (those who knows their onion) in the Nigeria's IT industry have either left the country for greener pastures, or hhave gone SoLo (self employed). The financial institution at the moment are handicapped in human resources, especially where IT is concerned.


in all, let's not forget the CashLess policy + Naira ReDesiign were impromptu

Most of these bank dont carry out regular stress test on their, softwares and networks.